BLOGKING 
NEWNVARS 

ncRBERT  S.HOUSTON 


»»#wi  vnr 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 


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BLOCKING 
NEW   WARS 


BY 

HERBERT  S.  HOUSTON 

Member  of  the  Committee  of  the  Chamber 
oj  Commerce  of  the  United  States  ori 
.         Economic  Results  of  the  War 


GARDEN  CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOUBLED  AY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1918 


Copyright,  1918,  by 

DOUBLEDAY,  PaGE  &  CoMPANY 

All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of 

translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the  Scandinavian 


HJSTOBn 


Hfc« 


DEDICATION 

To  my  colleagues  on  the  Committee 
of   the   Chamber   of   Commerce   of   the 
United  States  which  prepared  the  Refer- 
endum on  the  Economic  Results  of  the 
War,  men  with  the  vision  and  courage  to 
plan  definite  ways  to  prevent  future  wars: 
Edward  A.  Filene,  a  merchant 
of  Boston;  President  of  Wil- 
liam   Filene's    Sons    Com- 
pany; Director  of  the  Cham- 
ber   of    Commerce    of    the 
United  States;  former  Vice- 
President   of   the   Interna- 
tional  Congress  of  Cham- 
bers of  Commerce. 
Philip  H.   Gadsden,   Lawyer; 
President  of  public  utility 
companies    in    Charleston, 
South    Carolina;    formerly 
President  of  the  Charleston 
Chamber  of  Commerce. 


vi  DEDICATION 

Edward  Hidden,  President  of 
the  Southern  Woman's  Mag- 
azine; formerly  President  of 
the  St.  Louis  Business  Men's 
League. 
Herbert  A.  Meldruivi,  a  mer- 
chant of  Buffalo;  President 
of  the  BuflFalo  Chamber  of 
Commerce. 
George  E.  Roberts,  Assistant 
to  the  President  of  the  Na- 
tional City  Bank  of  New 
York;  formerly  Director  of 
the  United  States  Mint. 
Paul  H.  Saunders,  President  of 
the  Commercial  Trust  and 
Savings  Bank  of  New  Or- 
leans ;  Director  of  the  Federal 
Reserve  Bank  of  Atlanta. 
This  book  is  dedicated  with  the  expres- 
sion of  a  like  faith  with  theirs,  in  the 
power  of  international  commerce  to  aid 
in  maintaining  international  peace. 

By  the  Author. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.     Could  the  War  Have  Been 

Blocked? 3 

II.     What  Will  End  the  World 

War? 11 

III.  A  Force  to  Block  New  Wars .     £1 

IV.  American  Business  and  the 

League  of  Nations £8 

V.     Binding  the  Modern  World 

Together 35 

VI.     Free  Seas  and  Closed  Seas ...     45 

VII.     Napoleon's  Decrees  and  the 

Kaiser's  Submarine 52 

VIII.     Fighting   Foreign   Wars    at 

Home.. 61 

IX.     War  Prevention  versus  War 

Cost 69 

X.     Women,  Children  and  Em- 
battled Nations 75 

XI.     '  'The  Power  of  the  Purse  " . .     81 
vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

XII.  Removing  the  Causes  of  War    88 

Xni.  The    Bible  Warrant   for    a 

League  of  Nations 97 

XIV.  A  Court  House  for  the  World  110 

XV.  The  Sword  as  Final  Arbiter.   119 

XVI.  Business    the    Protector    of 

Democracy 125 

XVII.  The  Voice  of  the  People. ...   131 

XVIII.  The  New  Day  after  the  War  137 

APPENDIX 

I.  Proposals  of  the  League  to 

Enforce  Peace 153 

n.  Referendum  No.  11 155 

HI.  Referendum  No.  23 200 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 


COULD  THE  WAR  HAVE  BEEN  BLOCKED? 

VISCOUNT  GREY  of  Falloden,  while 
still  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign 
Affairs  of  Great  Britain,  expressed  the 
opinion  to  an  American  diplomat  that 
the  great  war  might  have  been  avoided 
if  there  had  been  in  existence,  during 
that  fateful  summer  of  1914,  the  pro- 
posed League  of  Nations.  Such  an 
opinion  from  so  responsible  a  statesman 
is  certainly  a  challenge  to  a  world  at  war. 
Not  so  much  a  challenge  as  to  what 
might  have  been,  for  the  angry  waters 
of  the  past  have  rushed  over  the  dam, 
but  a  challenge,  certainly,  to  the  future. 
For  if  the  greatest  war  in  history  could 
have  been  avoided,  then  there  is  ground 
for  hope  that  all  wars  can  be  avoided,  or, 
at  least,  that  the  danger  of  their  recur- 


4  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

rence  can  be  greatly  lessened.  So  the 
opinion  of  Viscount  Grey,  particularly 
in  relation  to  the  probable  world  organ- 
isation that  will  follow  peace,  is  deserving 
of  most  serious  examination. 

If  such  a  world  organisation  as  the 
widely  discussed  League  of  Nations  had 
been  in  effective  existence  in  1914,  on  the 
basis  of  the  American  proposals,  what 
would  have  been  its  procedure  when 
Austria  refused  to  arbitrate  its  differ- 
ences with  Serbia?  To  begin  with,  the 
other  nations  in  the  League  would  have 
instantly  joined  in  applying  economic 
pressure  to  Austria.  This  would  have 
taken  the  form  of  a  complete  trade  em- 
bargo. Manifestly  the  more  complete 
the  embargo  the  more  quickly  it  would 
have  been  effective.  In  that  respect  it 
is  like  the  blockade.  But  if  the  League 
of  Nations  had  been  organised  and  its 
International  Court  established  it  would 
have  had  both  the  authority  and  the 
machinery  to  make  the  trade  embargo 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  5 

complete.  The  nations  in  the  League 
would,  of  course,  have  had  their  diplo- 
matic representatives  in  Vienna.  They 
would  have  notified  the  Austrian  Govern- 
ment that  the  League  had  declared  an 
embargo  against  Austria;  that  the  em- 
bargo would  continue  in  force  until 
Austria  took  her  case  against  Serbia  to 
the  Liternational  Court  in  accordance 
with  her  pledge  to  the  League;  that, 
furthermore,  if  Austria  continued  her 
recalcitrancy  and  persisted  in  her  prepara- 
tion to  take  her  case  to  war  for  decision 
rather  than  to  court,  she  would  find  their 
combined  military  and  naval  power  on 
the  battle  line  by  Serbia's  side. 

The  economic  pressure  against  Austria 
would  probably  have  proved  too  strong 
to  be  resisted.  In  1912  the  total  export 
and  import  trade  of  the  dual  empire 
amounted  to  $1,277,000,000.  Against 
this  an  embargo  would  have  been  raised 
by  the  nations  of  the  League.  And  in 
connection  with  checking  and,  to  a  great 


6  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

degree,  stopping  this  vast  volume  of  trade, 
other  repressive  actions  would  have  been 
taken  against  Austria-Hungary.  Com- 
munication with  the  outside  world  would 
have  been  interdicted.  This  would  have 
affected  immediately  the  mails,  the  tele- 
graph and  cable  lines,  the  telephone  and 
wireless  communications.  Trains  would 
have  been  stopped  at  the  Austrian  border. 
Foreign  exchange  would  have  been  sus- 
pended, along  with  foreign  trade.  And 
Austria-Hungary  would  have  stood  m  the 
eyes  of  the  world  a  self-confessed,  mter- 
national  outlaw,  a  country  with  which 
other  countries  would  refuse  to  have  com- 
mercial intercourse,  or  any  commmiica- 
tion  or  any  relations  whatsoever. 

This  would  have  been  the  pressure 
from  without  and  it  would  have  been 
accompanied,  beyond  question,  by  strong 
pressure  from  within.  For  it  is  impossible 
to  suppose  that  many  people  in  Austria 
would  not  have  been  exerting  a  powerful 
public  opinion,  meantime,  against  their 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  7 

government.  Leaders  in  every  section 
of  Austrian  life  and  society — ^in  business, 
in  finance,  in  the  press,  in  the  church,  in 
the  government  itself — ^would  have  known 
the  cause  of  all  these  drastic  measures 
aimed  at  their  country,  and  many  of  them 
would  have  stirred  the  people  to  demand 
that  it  be  removed.  When  it  was  seen 
that  the  cause  was  Austria's  refusal  to 
keep  her  pledge,  made  with  other  nations, 
to  take  an  international  dispute  to  the 
International  Court,  an  act  of  sheer  out- 
lawry, it  is  impossible  to  believe  that 
Berchtold  and  his  ministers  could  have 
ridden  the  storm  of  protest  that  would 
have  arisen.  And  especially  would  this 
appear  to  be  the  inevitable  reaction  of  the 
Austrian  people,  because  their  protest 
against  their  government's  stand  before 
the  world  in  the  indefensible  position  of  an 
outlaw,  would  be  given  insistent  force 
by  their  own  uncalled-for  suffering  from 
the  penalty  of  that  outlawry.  Even  as 
they  protested  they  would  be  suffering 


8  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

from  the  economic  pressm-e  of  the  world 
visited  upon  them  because  their  govern- 
ment had  refused  to  keep  its  word.  And 
behind  the  economic  pressure  they  would 
have  seen  clearly  the  combined  military 
and  naval  power  of  the  League  of  Nations 
as  an  oncoming  vengeance  against  out- 
lawry, ready  to  be  used,  if  the  economic 
pressure  failed,  to  compel  Austria  to  obey 
the  law  and  take  her  case  against  Serbia 
to  court. 

The  conclusion  Is  unescapable  that 
pressure  from  within  would  have  been 
exerted  and  that  it  might  have  proved 
to  be  as  powerful  as  the  pressure  from 
without.  Between  the  two  millstones, 
it  is  reasonable  to  believe,  Austria  might 
have  had  ground  into  her  consciousness 
the  truth  that  ''righteousness  exalteth 
a  nation ' '  and  that  a  pledge  when  made 
must  be  kept. 

The  flaw  in  the  armour  of  this  hypo- 
thetical case  is  doubtless  the  war  policy 
of  Germany.     At  least  the  nations  of  the 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  9 

Entente  Allies  will  be  slow  to  believe  that 
anything  short  of  war  could  have  stopped 
the  war  spirit  of  the  militaristic  party  in 
Berlin,  when  ^'der  Tag, ' '  for  which  prepa- 
ration had  been  made  for  forty  years,  at 
last  dawned.  But  the  League  of  Nations 
strong  enough  to  coerce  Austria,  through 
either  economic  or  military  power,  which 
Viscount  Grey  manifestly  had  in  mind, 
would  have  included  Germany;  and  it  is 
such  a  league,  with  Germany  included, 
that  has  been  assumed  in  the  illustration 
presented.  As  to  the  violence  of  this 
assumption  for  the  Germany  of  1914  there 
would  be  wide  divergence  of  view.  But 
for  Germany  in  January,  1918,  her  Im- 
perial Chancellor,  Von  Hertling,  has 
stated  officially  that  ' '  the  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment is  gladly  ready,  when  all  other 
pending  questions  have  been  settled,  to 
begin  the  examination  of  the  basis  of  such 
a  bond  of  nations."  And  the  *' basis" 
has  been  indicated  clearly  by  President 
Wilson — ^"We  fight  for  the  things  we 


10         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

have  always  carried  nearest  to  our  hearts, 
for  the  right  of  those  who  submit  to 
authority  to  have  a  voice  in  their  own 
government,  for  the  rights  and  Hberties  of 
small  nations,  for  a  universal  dominion 
of  right  by  such  concert  of  free  peoples 
as  shall  bring  peace  and  safety  to  all 
nations  and  make  the  world  itself  free." 


n 

WHAT  WILL  END  THE  WORLD  WAR? 

BUT  the  great  war  came,  as  all  the 
world  knows.  Economic  pressure 
has  been  a  vital  factor  in  it  from  the  be- 
ginning and  it  may  prove  to  be  the  deci- 
sive one.  Nation  after  nation  has  joined 
the  fighting  lines  until  the  spring  of  1918 
finds  twenty-three  of  them  engaged.  In 
the  fullest  sense  it  has  been  an  inter- 
national war.  It  was  caused  by  the  defi- 
ance of  public  law  by  Germany.  That 
was  and  is  the  supreme  issue.  There 
were,  to  be  sure,  many  auxiliary  causes, 
but  the  overshadowing  cause  was  the 
assertion  by  an  autocratic  power  that  it 
could  employ  military  force  to  destroy 
the  law  of  nations.  When  the  Imperial 
Chancellor  of  Germany  made  that  asser- 
tion in  support  of  the  actual  invasion  of 
11 


12         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

neutral  Belgium,  the  challenge  was  made 
that  the  democratic  nations  had  to  meet, 
if  they  were  to  continue  democratic. 

WTiile  it  is  true  that  the  United  States 
did  not  join  in  resisting  this  first  challenge, 
although  a  great  part  of  its  citizenship 
believed  it  was  the  duty  of  the  govern- 
ment to  do  so,  the  second  challenge,  de- 
claring Germany's  lawless  purpose  to  defy 
the  public  law  of  the  seas  by  the  sub- 
marine, was  resisted.  So  this  country  is 
in  the  war  with  the  Allies,  in  support  of 
the  democratic  principle  that  autocratic 
military  power  cannot  defy  international 
law.  It  is  this  issue  that  makes  the  war 
one  between  autocracy  and  democracy. 
And  the  war  must  be  won,  in  the  much- 
quoted  because  defining  phrase  of  Presi- 
dent Wilson,  to  *'make  the  world  safe 
for  democracy. ' ' 

From  the  beginning  of  the  war,  eco- 
nomic pressure  has  been  a  potent  force 
and  has  been  used  in  many  ways,  both 
new   and    old.      Every    nation  engaged 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  13 

found  it  essential  to  place  its  whole  indus- 
trial organisation  on  a  war  footing.  This 
has  gone  forward,  in  a  quick  progression, 
through  industries  to  individuals.  While 
Germany  was  able  to  effect  a  highly  con- 
trolled organisation,  through  autocratic 
power,  more  quickly  than  her  enemies, 
they  have  all  steadily  developed  and 
mobilised  their  resources  for  war  purposes. 

So  as  the  war  has  gone  on  it  has  been 
manifest  that  economic  power,  as  a  war 
measure,  was  being  engaged  as  completely 
as  military  power.  And  the  end  will  come, 
so  many  observers  believe,  through  the 
effective  use  of  superior  economic  force, 
victory  resting  with  the  nations  that 
possess  that  superiority.  Of  course  the 
Allies  are  fully  aware  that  they  possess 
that  superiority  and  they  are  determined 
that  it  shall  be  so  used  that  they  shall  be 
the  victors. 

The  sea  power  of  Great  Britain  has 
been  the  dominating  agency  in  enforcing 
economic  pressure,  through  its  use  in  in- 


14  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

tercepting  Germany's  imports  and  ex- 
ports. In  order  to  make  this  power  as 
effective  as  possible  the  American  doc- 
trine of  continuous  voyage,  developed 
in  the  prize  courts  of  the  United  States 
during  the  Civil  War,  was  adopted  by 
both  England  and  France.  By  this  doc- 
trine, if  the  ultimate  destination  of  a  cargo 
was  proved  to  be  an  enemy  port,  that  fact 
established  its  enemy  character  and  made 
it  liable  to  seizure.  Proof  had  to  be 
established  in  prize  courts  under  the  rules 
of  international  law.  But  swiftly  the 
ocean-borne  commerce  of  Germany  was 
reduced  and  practically  destroyed.  The 
resulting  pressure  upon  Germany  and 
Austria  has  been  widespread  and  most 
severe.  This  has  been  shown  in  innu- 
merable ways,  such  as  the  rationing  of  the 
civil  population,  the  hunger  strikes,  the 
reports  in  the  German  and  Austrian 
papers,  as  well  as  through  reports  from 
contiguous  neutral  countries.  While  the 
actual  figures  of  loss,  in  both  the  export 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  15 

and  import  trade,  are  not  available,  they 
unquestionably  represent  a  total  so  stag- 
gering that  their  effect  can  be  considered 
one  of  the  most  disastrous  blows  dealt 
the  Central  Powers  during  the  war. 

In  addition  to  the  blockade  work  of  the 
English  Navy,  the  whole  economic  power 
of  the  British  Empire  was  invoked  in 
January,  1916.  Every  self-governing  do- 
minion, every  colony,  every  part  of  the 
Empire  responded  by  boycotting  Ger- 
man trade.  The  result  was  an  embargo 
at  the  source,  the  form  in  which  economic 
pressure  can  be  made  most  drastic.  Trade 
black  lists  were  issued,  restrictions  were 
placed  on  the  shipment  of  raw  materials, 
coal  ports  were  closed  to  ships  that  car- 
ried pro-German  cargoes  and  presently 
a  world-wide  boycott  was  in  force  against 
Germany  and  her  Allies  that  will  continue 
with  constantly  increasing  pressure  until 
the  war  ends.  In  this  tightening  ring 
of  commerce  every  nation  of  the  Entente 
Allies  has  a  part.    The  United  States,  in 


16         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

particular,  used  the  economic  weapon 
before  it  was  able  to  use  any  military 
weapon  and  throughout  the  war  its  vast 
commercial  power  will  be  employed.  This 
power  has  been  mobilised  in  many  ways. 
The  Government  in  the  spring  of  1918 
took  entire  control  of  foreign  exchange; 
before  that  it  had  established  a  license 
system  for  export  trade,  and  adopted  a 
Trading  with  the  Enemy  Act  of  the  most 
comprehensive  and  drastic  character.  All 
of  these  measures — and  they  have  been 
adopted  in  some  form  by  France  and  our 
other  Allies — ^have  combined  in  creating 
a  financial  and  economic  offensive  against 
Germany  that  is  likely  to  prove  as  power- 
ful in  ending  the  war  as  the  military 
offensive. 

But  Germany  has  not  been  alone  in  the 
war  in  feeling  the  force  of  economic  pres- 
sure. England  and  France  have  felt  it,  espe- 
cially through  the  destruction  of  merchant 
ships  by  the  submarine.  This  has  limited 
the  import  of  foods  by  both  countries  and 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  17 

made  necessary  carefully  devised  control 
of  the  food  supply  and  regulation  of  its 
consumption.  And  economic  pressure  has 
been  felt  in  America  through  the  neces- 
sity laid  on  this  country  of  saving  enough 
from  the  stock  of  grain  and  meat  and  fats 
to  supply  the  deficiencies  among  our 
Allies.  For  a  number  of  months  eighty- 
four  Dutch  ships  were  held  in  the  harbour 
of  New  York,  many  of  them  loaded  with 
supplies,  because  it  was  feared  that  a 
considerable  part  of  their  cargoes  would 
ultimately  find  their  way  to  Germany  and 
because,  moreover,  these  cargoes  were 
sorely  needed  in  England  and  France  and 
Italy.  Finally,  in  January,  1918,  these 
ships  were  allowed  to  sail  under  guaranty 
that  all  the  supplies  they  bore  would  go 
only  to  neutrals  or  to  the  Allies  and  that 
the  ships  would  be  returned  to  this 
country  for  use  in  our  own  carrying  trade. 
Within  a  few  months  after  our  entry 
into  the  war,  a  Food  Administration  was 
established  under  the  direction  of  Her- 


18         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

bert  Hoover,  and  it  has  carried  out  the 
most  comprehensive  plans  both  for  con- 
serving and  using  the  food  supply  and 
for  increasing  it.  Similar  plans  have  been 
followed  by  Dr.  Harry  A.  Garfield,  the 
Fuel  Administrator.  And  the  most 
drastic  one,  forbidding  the  use  of  coal  in 
industry,  with  a  few  designated  excep- 
tions, for  five  consecutive  days,  beginning 
January  18th,  1918,  and  for  nine  Mondays, 
beginning  January  21st,  came  as  such  a 
sudden  shock  that  the  whole  country  was 
fairly  dazed.  But  the  order  was  obeyed 
until  it  w^as  rescinded  after  the  third  coal- 
less  Monday,  and  the  coal  situation  defi- 
nitely improved.  And  it  can  be  frankly 
stated  that  the  food  and  fuel  orders 
brought  the  war  more  closely  to  America 
than  anything  else  had  done.  On  a 
wheatless  or  meatless  day,  especially  if 
it  were  a  coalless  one,  the  news  of  fight- 
ing in  France  was  borne  home  in  a  closer, 
sharper  way  than  ever  before.  It  was 
economic  pressure  of  a  very  real  sort  and 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  19 

in  a  country  that  had  always  believed  its 
resources  were  exhaustless. 

As  the  war  has  gone  on  it  has  seemed 
probable  that  its  end  would  come  with  the 
complete  economic  collapse  of  one  or  the 
other  group  of  belligerents.  It  is  largely 
a  struggle  for  subsistence,  both  for  armies 
and  navies  and  for  the  belligerents  back 
of  them.  The  heavy  gun  is  no  more  im- 
portant, in  forcing  a  decision,  than  the 
big  cargo  ship.  Or  to  state  it  differently 
and  more  accurately,  when  the  ships  can 
supply  the  necessary  men  and  munitions 
the  guns  will  be  able  to  force  a  decision 
and  end  the  war. 

Germany's  drive  for  a  separate  peace 
with  Russia  was  made  both  as  a  military 
and  as  an  economic  measure.  After  the 
treaty  with  Ukraine  it  was  believed  that 
food  supplies  would  be  forthcoming  that 
would  greatly  relieve  the  situation  with 
the  Central  Powers.  To  what  degree  this 
will  be  true,  in  view  of  the  demoralised 
situation  throughout  Russia,  is  not  clear, 


20  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

but,  as  far  as  it  is  true,  it  will  prove  to  be 
an  economic  factor  of  definite  conse- 
quence. 

It  is  plain  that  this  economic  pressure, 
applied  by  all  of  the  belligerents,  has 
been  a  war  measure,  just  as  definitely 
as  the  fighting  by  armies  and  navies. 
And  its  operation  in  working  to  end  so 
great  a  war  illustrates  the  effects  it  would 
produce  when  used  as  a  preliminary  meas- 
ure, by  a  league  of  nations  against  a 
single  nation,  to  prevent  war. 


Ill 

A  FORCE  TO  BLOCK  NEW  WARS 

EVEN  while  the  present  war  was 
waged,  a  pledge  to  use  economic  pres- 
sure was  made  as  a  threat  to  avert  a  new 
war.  The  business  men  of  America,  in 
February,  1918,  took  the  imprecedented 
action  of  serving  definite  notice  on  the 
business  men  of  Germany  that  they  will 
not  hesitate  to  use  a  trade  embargo 
against  Germany,  unless  she  lessens  the 
danger  of  future  war  by  reducing  the  size 
of  her  armaments.  This  notice,  published 
to  the  world,  was  embodied  in  a  formal 
referendum  submitted  to  the  six  hundred 
thousand  business  men  in  the  hundreds 
of  commercial  organisations  making  up 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  United 
States;  and,  voting  as  organisations,  they 
endorsed  it  by  a  vote  of  1,204  to  154.  In 
21 


22  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

the  printed  explanation  accompanying  the 
referendum  it  was  stated  that  the  action 
proposed  ' '  involves  no  thought  of  revenge 
or  punishment,  but  is  based  on  the  logic 
that  only  through  industrial  intercourse 
with  the  United  States  can  the  military 
party  of  Germany  get  the  sinews  with 
which  to  precipitate  a  second  great  world 
war."  The  point  was  emphasised  that 
the  size  of  Germany's  armament,  after 
the  war,  would  determine  the  size  of  the 
defensive  armaments  maintained  by  other 
nations;  and,  with  unescapable  logic,  it 
was  argued  that  the  size  of  Germany's 
armament  would  depend  on  her  after-war 
receipts  of  raw  materials  and  on  the 
profits  from  her  foreign  trade.  And  it  was 
on  the  broad  ground  of  preventing  great 
armaments  and  thereby  preventing  future 
wars  that  affirmative  support  for  the 
referendum  was  asked  and  the  pledge  of 
the  organised  business  men  of  America 
secured  to  "enter  an  economic  combina- 
tion against   Germany   if  governmental 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  23 

conditions  make  it  necessary  for  self-de- 
fence. ' ' 

The  Merchants  Association  of  New 
York  gave  a  negative  vote  on  this  refer- 
endum for  the  reason,  as  stated,  that 
"While  in  entire  accord  with  the  senti- 
ment and  purpose, ' '  expressed  in  the  ref- 
erendum, *'the  Association  believes  that 
the  proposed  method  is  neither  the  most 
appropriate  nor  the  most  effective  for  ac- 
complishing the  end  sought.  The  inter- 
national co-operation  which  it  implies  is 
more  properly  a  function  of  government 
and  can  better  be  accomplished  through 
governmental  channels  than  through  the 
intervention  of  unofficial  commercial  bod- 
ies." This  dissent  is  clearly  based  on 
method  and  not  on  the  use  of  economic 
pressure  by  a  league  of  nations  to  pre- 
vent war. 

While  there  was  some  opposition  based 
on  the  ground  taken  by  the  Merchants 
Association  of  New  York,  the  referendum 
was  carried  by  a  great  majority.    But  this 


24  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

action  must  in  no  wise  be  interpreted  as 
identifying  the  business  men  of  America 
with  the  Paris  Economic  Conference,  held 
before  the  United  States  entered  the  war, 
or  construed  into  support  of  the  plans 
there  considered.  In  fact,  a  broad  dis- 
claimer of  any  such  purpose  or  intention 
was  expressed  in  the  statement,  '*W^e  be- 
lieve the  American  people  will  not  join 
in  discrimination  against  German  goods 
after  the  war,  if  the  danger  of  excessive 
armament  has  been  removed  by  the  fact 
that  the  German  Government  has  in 
reality  become  a  responsible  instrument 
controlled  by  the  German  people." 

This  significant  referendum  can  fairly 
be  considered  a  challenge  to  the  business 
men  of  Germany,  from  the  business  men 
of  America,  to  prevent  a  disastrous  eco- 
nomic war,  by  holding  back  the  Junker 
and  militaristic  party  from  mad  prepara- 
tions for  future  war,  when  peace  finally 
comes.  It  is  in  full  accord  with  President 
Wilson's  statement  of  American  war  aims. 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  25 

in  his  address  of  January  8th,  1918.  The 
third  of  these  aims  proposed ' '  the  removal, 
so  far  as  possible,  of  all  economic  barriers 
and  the  establishment  of  an  equality  of 
trade  conditions  among  all  the  nations 
consenting  to  the  peace  and  associating 
themselves  for  its  maintenance."  It  is 
interesting  to  state  that  ''equality  of 
trade"  was  limited  by  the  President,  in 
this  same  address,  in  a  way  that  permits 
of  most  effective  use  of  economic  pressure 
as  explained  in  another  chapter. 

But  clearly,  in  all  this  discussion,  busi- 
ness and  political,  there  is  emerging  a 
powerful  international  force,  economic 
pressure,  that  the  world  must  reckon  with. 
In  February,  1918,  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  Senator  Owen  presented  a  reso- 
lution stating  that  ''The  United  States 
believes  that  under  a  general  association 
of  nations  it  should  be  a  violation  of  inter- 
national law  and  the  highest  international 
crime  for  any  nation,  on  any  alleged 
ground,  to  invade  by  military  power  the 


26  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

territorial  limits  of  another  nation,  and 
that  the  penalty  for  such  invasions  should 
be  the  immediate  international  blockade 
of  the  invading  and  offending  nation;  an 
embargo  on  all  mail,  express,  and  freight 
to  and  from  such  nation,  and  the  suppres- 
sion of  such  invasion  by  the  combined 
forces  of  the  general  association  of  nations 
organised  for  the  protection  of  world 
peace." 

And  at  about  the  same  time  the  British 
Minister  of  Blockade,  Lord  Robert  Cecil, 
gave  public  expression  to  his  belief  that 
economic  pressure  would  be  a  powerful 
weapon  for  a  league  of  nations  to  use 
against  a  recalcitrant  nation.  To  this 
declaration  he  added  this  definite  per- 
sonal commitment :  "  I  would  not  remain 
for  an  hour  a  member  of  any  government 
who  did  not  make  the  arrangement  of  a 
league  of  nations  after  the  war  one  of 
its  main  objects. ' ' 

Mr.  W^alter  Runclman,  in  November, 
1917,  gave  it  as  his  view  that  ''The  only 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  27 

sense  in  which  a  league  of  nations  can  be 
reasonably  contemplated  is  in  that  de- 
fined by  President  Wilson.  ...  A 
league  which  would,  in  effect,  penalise 
Great  Powers  must  have  behind  it  a 
great  sanction.  ...  I  look  roimd  in 
every  direction  in  vain  for  a  sanction, 
except  that  of  the  economic  offensive. " 


IV 


AMERICAN  BUSINESS  AND  THE  LEAGUE  OF 
NATIONS 

AMERICAN  business  men  had  gone 
on  record  in  favour  of  economic 
pressure  over  two  years  before  the  refer- 
endum, already  outUned,  was  submitted 
to  vote.  In  fact,  economic  pressure  has 
its  place  in  the  League  of  Nations  pro- 
gram through  their  support  and  approval. 
President  A.  Lawrence  Lowell  of  Harvard 
University,  it  is  interesting  to  recall, 
raised  the  question,  when  the  proposals 
of  the  League  to  Enforce  Peace  were  being 
formulated  in  Philadelphia  in  June,  1915, 
as  to  what  effect  economic  pressure  could 
have  had  as  a  deterrent  force  against  Aus- 
tria. And  the  author  undertook  to  state 
briefly  the  ground  for  believing  that  that 
pressure  would  have  been  strong  enough 
28 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  29 

to  have  compelled  Austria  to  present  her 
case  against  Serbia  for  a  hearing — ^the 
ground  that  has  been  traversed,  and  some- 
what expanded,  in  the  first  chapter. 

The  third  proposal  in  the  League  plat- 
form of  principles  was  under  discussion, 
the  one  having  to  do  with  the  sanctions 
to  put  behind  a  court.  After  full  agree- 
ment had  been  reached  on  the  use  of  ^ 
military  power  as  a  sanction,  I  proposed, 
as  a  representative  of  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  of  the  United  States,  that  eco-  / 
nomic  pressure  be  made  a  preliminary 
sanction,  in  the  third  plank  of  the  plat- 
form, to  be  followed  by  military  power  as 
a  final  sanction.  This  view  was  supported 
by  Philip  H.  Gadsden  of  Charleston,  my 
colleague  on  the  Platform  Committee, 
in  representing  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, and  it  was  embodied,  in  a  modified 
form,  in  the  third  proposal,  as  follows: 

The  signatory  powers  shall  jointly  use 
forthwith  both  their  economic  and  military 
forces  against  any  one  of  their  number  that 


30  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

goes  to  war,  or  commits  acts  of  hostility, 
against  another  of  the  signatories,  before  any 
question  arising  shall  be  submitted  as  pro- 
vided in  the  foregoing. 

My  purpose  In  following  this  eco- 
nomic pressure  proposal  from  Its  Intro- 
duction, through  Its  first  and  then  into 
its  final  form,  in  the  platform  of  the 
League  to  Enforce  Peace,  Is  to  make  clear 
and  to  emphasise  the  point  that  this  dis- 
tinctly commercial  sanction,  which  will 
aflFect  business  profoundly  when  put  into 
effect,  originated  with  busmess  men,  was 
presented  by  business  men  for  adoption 
in  the  platform  of  the  League,  and  then 
ratified  by  the  business  men  of  America 
in  an  overwhelming  majority  when  sub- 
mitted to  a  referendum  by  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  of  the  United  States.  If 
this  be  treason  to  the  business  of  the  world 
the  business  men  of  this  country  must 
accept  the  responsibility  after  prolonged 
consideration  of  all  the  consequences.  At 
the  national  convention  of  the  Chamber, 


BLOCKING  NEW  WAES         SI 

held  in  Washington  in  February,  1915, 1 
had  offered  a  resolution  urging  **that  the 
next  Hague  Conference  provide  as  a  J 
penalty  for  the  infraction  of  its  conven- 
tions, that  an  embargo  shall  be  declared 
against  an  offending  nation  by  the  other 
signatory  nations."  This  was  referred 
to  a  committee  on  international  affairs 
that  was  constituted  to  consider  it,  under 
the  chairmanship  of  Edward  A.  Filene 
of  Boston.  General  discussion  was  going 
on  throughout  the  country  of  some  new 
world  organisation  that  might  follow  the 
war.  The  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science  considered  the  ques- 
tion at  its  meeting  in  Philadelphia  in 
April.  In  Cleveland,  during  May,  a 
World  Court  Congress  was  held  under 
the  presidency  of  John  Hays  Hammond, 
engineer  and  business  man  of  interna- 
tional distinction,  and  all  of  its  sessions 
were  given  to  discussion  of  international 
organisation  and  the  establishment  of  a 
World  Court.  Chairman  Filene  had  called 


32         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

his  Chamber  of  Commerce  Committee 
together  in  Cleveland  and  the  resolution 
on  economic  pressure  was  considered; 
and  a  month  later,  on  June  17th,  1915, 
the  Committee  met  again,  this  time  in 
connection  with  the  meeting  at  Indepen- 
dence Hall  in  Philadelphia,  at  which  was 
formed  the  League  to  Enforce  Peace. 
The  Committee  unanimously  agreed  to 
the  presentation  before  the  Independence 
Hall  Conference  of  economic  pressure  as  a 
sanction  to  be  employed  by  the  proposed 
League  of  Nations.  As  has  been  stated, 
this  presentation  was  made  and  the  sanc- 
tions adopted  and  the  third  plank  in- 
cluded '  *  the  combined  economic  and  mili- 
tary powers"  of  the  signatory  nations. 
This  provided  for  the  use  of  these  powers 
concurrently  and  not  in  sequence,  as  the 
Committee  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
urged.  But  the  Committee  joined  heart- 
ily in  support  of  the  new  League  and  two 
of  its  members,  later  increased  to  three, 
were  included  in  the  League's  Executive 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  33 

Committee,   as  representatives  of  busi- 
ness men.     Then  in  an  endeavour  to  enlist 
the  active  support  of  the  business  men 
of  the  country  for  the  programme  of  the 
League,  the  Committee  of  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  of  the  United  States  pre- 
pared a  comprehensive  referendum  (which 
is  printed  in  the  Appendix)  on  the  League's 
four  proposals  and  this  was  submitted 
to  the  six  hundred  constituent  commercial 
bodies  at  that  time  comprising  the  Cham- 
ber.   The  result  was  an  overwhelming 
majority  in  favour  of  the  use  of  economic 
pressure  and  a  much  smaller  majority  in 
favour  of  the  use  of  military  power.    With 
this  mandate  of  the  business  men  of  the 
United   States   behind   them,   the   three 
members  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
on    the    Executive    Committee    of    the 
League  to  Enforce  Peace,  Mr.  Filene,  Mr. 
Gadsden  and  myself,  pressed  for  an  inter- 
pretation   of    article    three    that   would 
square  with  the  business  men's  view  as  to 
the   place   which   economic   pressure,    a 


34         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

commercial  sanction,  should  have  in  the 
plan  for  a  League  of  Nations.  And  this 
interpretation  was  secured  by  the  action 
of  the  Executive  Committee,  which  au- 
thorised the  following: 

The  signatory  powers  shall  jointly  employ 
diplomatic  and  economic  pressure  against  any 
one  of  their  number  that  threatens  war 
against  a  fellow  signatory  without  having  first 
submitted  its  dispute  f(^r  international  in- 
quiry, conciliation,  arbitration  or  judicial 
hearing,  and  awaited  a  conclusion,  or  without 
having  in  good  faith  offered  so  to  submit  it. 
They  shall  follow  this  forthwith  by  the  joint 
use  of  their  military  forces  against  that  nation 
if  it  actually  goes  to  war,  or  commits  acts  of 
hostility,  against  another  of  the  signatories 
before  any  question  arising  shall  be  dealt  with 
as  provided  in  the  foregoing. 

It  can  be  definitely  claimed,  therefore, 
for  economic  pressure,  in  the  plan  pro- 
posed by  the  League  to  Enforce  Peace, 
that  it  stands  for  the  settled  conviction, 
reached  after  full  discussion,  considera- 
tion and  referendum,  of  the  business  men 
of  the  United  States.  By  them  it  is  sub- 
mitted to  the  judgment  of  the  world. 


V 

BINDING    THE   MODERN   WORLD    TOGETHER 

IN  considering  the  grounds  on  which 
American  business  men  base  their  be- 
lief in  the  value  of  economic  pressure  as  a 
force  for  the  maintenance  of  peace,  it  is 
necessary  to  present  a  brief  survey  of  the 
organisation  of  the  modern  world.  The 
controlling  idea  in  that  organisation  is 
interdependence.  And  the  essential  fac- 
tor in  interdependence  is  communication. 
The  agencies  for  quick  communication 
have  become  so  familiar  that  their  signifi- 
cance, as  a  rule,  is  quite  overlooked.  Be- 
ginning with  the  printing  press  these 
agencies  have  increased  in  number  and 
speed  to  the  point  where  there  seem  to  be 
no  longer  frontiers  of  the  possible;  if  there 
still  are,  in  some  souls,  they  are  assuredly 
being  crossed  and  recrossed.  Following 
35 


36  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

the  post,  by  ship  and  coach  and  train, 
came  the  telegraph  by  land  and  sea,  the 
telephone,  and  then,  as  a  capping  achieve- 
ment, the  wireless.  And  with  these  dis- 
tributive means  of  communication  the 
productive  means  also  multiplied,  in 
printing  presses,  typewriting  machines 
and  all  kinds  of  mechanical  devices.  But 
even  more  important,  knowledge  was 
democratised,  both  as  effect  and  cause, 
in  this  modern  period,  and  provided  end- 
less books  and  newspapers  and  all  man- 
ner of  periodicals,  besides  letters,  tele- 
grams and  wireless  messages,  all  forms  of 
communication  which  the  agencies  of  dis- 
tribution bore  throughout  the  world,  near 
and  far.  This  power  of  quick  communica- 
tion developed  endless  relationships,  all 
bearing  their  part  in  creating  and  main- 
taining a  world-wide  interdependence.  For 
communication  has  respected  national 
boundaries  no  more  than  the  winds  of 
heaven. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  consider  here 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  37 

how  many  forces  became  definitely  inter- 
national, through  this  power  of  communi- 
cation, but  they  are  too  numerous  to  be 
considered  in  detail.  At  present  the  char- 
acter of  economic  pressure  is  the  one  point 
to  make  clear.  In  this  modern  world 
business  can  be  broadly  defined  as  its 
organised  commercial  life,  in  the  three 
great  divisions  of  production,  distribu- 
tion and  consumption.  Business,  in 
each  of  these  divisions,  is  international. 
It  employs  the  one  truly  international 
language,  that  of  figures,  understood  in 
every  country.  Today  money  is  inter- 
national because  it  has  gold  as  a  com- 
mon basis.  Credit  based  on  gold  is 
international.  Commerce  based  on  money 
and  on  credit  is  international.  Then 
the  amazing  network  of  agencies  by 
which  money  and  credit  and  commerce 
are  employed  in  the  modern  world  are  also 
international.  How  closely  interrelated 
all  these  agencies  are  was  shown  in  a 
dramatic  way  when  the  great  war  broke. 


38  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

Instantly  stock  exchanges  throughout  the 
world  were  closed.  Moratoriums  were 
declared  m  nearly  every  country.  This 
was  not  due  to  the  fact  that  the  world 
had  suddenly  become  bankrupt,  but  it 
was  due  wholly  to  a  breakdown  of  the 
machinery  through  which  the  business 
world  carried  on  its  aflPairs.  In  brief,  it 
came  from  a  breakdown  in  the  agencies 
of  international  communication.  The 
world-wide  disturbance  that  was  imme- 
diately caused  threw  into  high  relief  the 
fact  that  all  nations  had  been  bound  to- 
gether, chiejfly  through  the  development 
of  commerce,  into  an  interrelated  and 
interdependent  organism.  It  showed  to 
even  the  most  self-centred  and  self-suflB- 
cient  country  that  it  was  part  of  a  great 
whole.  In  that  wonderful  figure  of  the 
Apostle  Paul,  in  describing  the  early 
Christian  Church,  *'they  were  members 
one  of  another."  Not  one  among  them, 
however  strong,  could  stand  alone.  It  is 
the  growing  understanding  of  this  fact, 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  39 

which  the  war  has  embedded  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  world,  that  gives  the 
underlying  hope  for  a  league  of  nations. 
As  all  suffer  through  war,  all  must  com- 
bine to  lessen  the  danger  of  wars.  And 
that  tremendous  purpose,  to  find  a  sane 
and  practicable  way  out  of  war,  has  be- 
come one  of  the  great  purposes  of  the 
war.  As  the  League  to  Enforce  Peace 
expressed  this  purpose  in  these  two 
graphic  declarations:  "Make  the  world 
safe  by  the  defeat  of  German  Militarism ' ' 
and  ''Keep  the  world  safe  by  a  League  of 
Nations."  And  Viscount  Grey  gave  ex- 
pression to  the  necessity  for  such  a  league 
in  these  memorable  words:  "Unless  man- 
kind learns  from  this  war  to  avoid  war, 
the  struggle  will  have  been  in  vain.  Over 
humanity  will  loom  the  menace  of  de- 
struction. If  the  world  cannot  organise 
against  war,  if  war  must  go  on,  then  the 
nations  can  protect  themselves  hence-  / 
forth  only  by  using  whatever  destructive 
agencies  they  can  invent,  till  the  resources 


40  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

and  inventions  of  science  end  by  destroy- 
ing the  humanity  they  are  meant  to 
serve. ' ' 

And  the  Enghsh  statesman  who  pre- 
ceded Viscount  Grey  in  the  Foreign 
Office,  Lord  Lansdowne,  points  out  the 
path,  on  which  the  best  judgment  of  the 
world  is  centring,  that  must  be  followed 
if  that  catastrophe  is  avoided.  Lord 
Lansdowne  said,  "If  the  Powers  will 
come  under  a  solemn  pact  and  bind  them- 
selves to  submit  future  disputes  to  arbi- 
tration; if  they  will  undertake  to  outlaw, 
politically  and  economically,  any  one  of 
their  number  which  refuses  to  enter  into 
such  a  pact,  or  to  use  their  joint  military 
and  naval  forces  for  the  purpose  of  coerc- 
ing a  Power  which  breaks  away  from  the 
rest,  they  will  indeed  have  travelled  far 
along  the  road  which  leads  to  security." 

The  leading  churchmen  of  England, 
headed  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
prepared  an  appeal  in  February,  1918, 
which  gave  the  most  unqualified  support 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  41 

to  the  League  of  Nations  programme.  * '  We 
believe  that  a  new  system  of  international 
law  and  authority,"  said  the  appeal, 
*' acting  through  an  inclusive  league  of 
nations  in  place  of  any  balance  of  power, 
is  a  condition  of  a  just  and  lasting  peace, 
particularly  as  it  affords  means  whereby 
the  fresh  demands  of  national  life  as  they 
arise  can  be  adjudicated  upon  and  equi- 
tably satisfied. 

* 'Accordingly,  we  hold  it  to  be  of  the 
utmost  importance,  as  President  Wilson 
has  just  emphasised,  that  such  a  league 
should  not  merely  be  contemplated  as  a 
more  or  less  remote  outcome  of  a  future 
settlement,  but  should  be  put  in  the  very 
forefront  of  the  peace  terms  as  their  pre- 
supposition and  guarantee. 

''Whether  it  be  or  be  not  practicable, 
without  any  slackening  of  the  energy 
with  which  the  war  must  be  waged,  to 
make  a  beginning  upon  the  League  as  re- 
gards the  Allies  and  neutrals,  even  before 
the  peace  conference,  we  do  not  venture 


42  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

to  decide,  though  we  think  this  course 
has  much  to  commend  it.  But  we  are 
sm-e  of  the  pressing  need  there  is  here 
and  now  of  giving  the  League  of  Nations 
the  backing  of  an  organised  body  of 
strong  conviction;  sure,  also,  that  this 
task  offers  to  the  Christian  consciousness 
an  opportunity  to  make  its  own  spirit 
felt  in  national  policy  such  as  has  not 
occurred  heretofore  since  the  outbreak 
of  this  war. ' ' 

This  strong  and  convincing  appeal 
bore,  in  addition  to  the  signature  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  signatures 
of  the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  the  Bishop 
of  Oxford,  the  Bishop  of  Southwark,  the 
Bishop  of  Peterborough,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
James  Cooper,  Moderator  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  Scotland;  the  Rev.  Dr. 
W.  B.  Settle,  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Scott  Lid- 
gett,  the  Rev.  Dr.  F.  B.  Meyer,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  D.  S.  Cairns,  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Esthn 
Carpenter,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Alexander  Con- 
nell,  the  Rev.  Father  Plater,  Lord  Henry 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  43 

Bentinck,  Lord  Parmoor,  the  Rt.  Hon. 
Arthur  Henderson,  George  Lansbury, 
Arthur  Mansbridge,  Professor  A.  S. 
Peake,  and  Principal  T.  F.  Roberts. 

The  support  for  the  League  of  Nations 
plan  in  America  has  been  as  influential 
and  widespread  as  in  England.  President 
Nicholas  Murray  Butler  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity in  an  address  before  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  in  St.  Louis,  February  16, 
1918,  said: 

**A  league  to  establish  and  to  enforce 
the  rules  of  international  law  and  con- 
duct is  now  in  existence,  with  the  United 
States  as  one  of  its  most  potent  members. 
This  league  should  be  a  permanent  addi- 
tion to  the  world's  organisation  for  order 
and  for  peace.  Upon  its  firm  establish- 
ment three  consequences  will  almost 
necessarily  follow.  First,  there  can  be 
no  separate  alliances  or  ententes  of  a 
political  or  military  character  between 
nations  included  in  the  league,  and  this 
league  must  aim  in  time  to  include  the 


44  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

whole  civilised  world.  Second,  there  can 
be  a  speedy  reduction  of  armaments, 
both  to  lighten  the  burdens  of  taxation 
and  to  turn  the  minds  of  the  nations  away 
from  international  war,  to  prevent  which 
will  be  such  a  league's  chief  aim.  Third, 
the  most  favoured  nation  clause  must  be 
made  applicable  to  all  members  of  the 
league  whenever  treaties  of  commerce 
are  concluded  between  any  two  or  more 
of  the  nations  that  are  included  in  it. 
This  will  either  greatly  lessen  or  wholly 
remove  one  of  the  strongest  economic 
temptations  to  international  war." 

As  indicating  how  generally  the  respon- 
sible opinion  of  the  world  has  centred 
on  this  programme,  these  w^ords  of  Presi- 
dent W^ilson  are  significant  because  they 
restate  his  unchanging  belief  in  * '  the  part- 
nership of  nations  which  must  henceforth 
guarantee  the  world's  peace.  That  part- 
nership must  be  a  partnership  of  peoples, 
not  a  mere  partnership  of  governments. ' ' 


VI 

FREE  SEAS  AND  CLOSED  SEAS 

PRESIDENT  WILSON  in  his  notable 
statement  of  the  war  aims  of  the 
United  States,  in  his  address  to  Congress 
January  8,  1918,  to  which  reference  has 
been  made,  presented  an  exception  to  the 
free  use  of  the  seas,  which  reveals  a  imi- 
versal  agency  for  enforcing  economic  pres- 
sure. ''Absolute  freedom  of  navigation 
upon  the  seas,  outside  territorial  waters, 
alike  in  peace  and  in  war"  he  declared 
to  be  one  of  our  aims,  with  this  pregnant 
qualification,  "except  as  the  seas  may  be 
closed  in  whole  or  in  part  by  international 
action  for  the  enforcement  of  international 
covenants." 

This  exception  offers  a  wide  range  for 
the   effective   employment   of   economic 
pressure.      The  seas  are  the  great  high- 
45 


46         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

ways  of  commerce.  For  centuries  they 
were  infested  with  pirates,  corsairs,  bucca- 
neers, all  manner  of  ocean  bandits.  Na- 
tions made  common  cause  against  them, 
but  they  were  not  swept  from  the  seas 
imtil  a  century  ago.  And  even  then  a 
form  of  legalised  piracy,  privateering,  was 
sanctioned  as  a  war  measure  and  con- 
tinued imtil  a  comparatively  recent  pe- 
riod. But  all  the  time  commerce  was  ex- 
panding and  its  claims  for  protection  were 
being  asserted.  At  the  Paris  Conference 
of  1856,  Lord  Clarendon  agreed  for  Great 
Britain,  then,  as  now,  the  greatest  mari- 
time power,  in  these  four   declarations: 

(1)  That  privateering  should  be  abol- 
ished. 

(2)  That  a  neutral  flag  covered  enemy 
goods,  except  contraband. 

(3)  That  neutral  goods,  except  contra- 
band, were  not  liable  to  capture  imless 
imder  an  enemy  flag. 

(4)  That  blockades  to  be  binding  must 
be  made  effective. 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS         47 

These  declarations,  although  long  un- 
popular with  many  influential  men  and 
interests  in  England,  marked  a  great  ad- 
vance in  the  struggle  for  free  commerce 
on  a  free  ocean.  They  were  international 
declarations,  agreed  upon  at  an  inter- 
national conference,  and  asserted  the 
fundamental  truth  that  the  sea  is  an 
international  highway,  subject  to  inter- 
national control. 

But  the  United  States  did  not  adhere 
to  the  declarations  as  they  did  not  con- 
cede the  American  contention  that  all 
private  property  should  be  exempt  from 
capture  by  war  ships,  as  Well  as  by  priva- 
teers, in  maritime  warfare.  In  the  Hague 
Conference  of  1899,  Dr.  Andrew  D. 
WTiite,  head  of  the  American  delegation, 
endeavoured  to  have  this  exemption  of 
private  property  established,  but  it  was 
decided  that  consideration  of  the  question 
could  not  properly  be  given  as  the  sub- 
ject was  no*:  included  in  the  official  pro- 
gramme announced  when  the  conference 


48  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

was  called.  But  when  the  second  Hague 
Conference  assembled  in  1907  that  omis- 
sion had  been  fully  corrected  and  at  the 
first  session  of  the  Commission  of  the 
Conference,  to  which  the  question  was 
referred,  Joseph  H.  Choate,  head  of  the 
American  delegates,  submitted  this  coun- 
try's proposal,  as  follows: 

*'The  private  property  of  all  the  citi- 
zens of  the  signatory  powers,  with  the 
exception  of  contraband  of  war,  shall  be 
exempt  on  the  sea  from  capture  or  seizure 
by  either  the  armed  vessels  or  the  military 
forces  of  the  said  powers.  Nevertheless, 
this  provision  does  not  at  all  imply  the 
inviolability  of  vessels  which  should  try 
to  enter  a  port  blockaded  by  the  naval 
forces  of  the  said  powers,  nor  the  in- 
violability of  the  cargoes  of  the  said 
vessels. " 

Twenty-one  nations  supported  the  pro- 
posal, eleven  opposed  it,  one  failed  to 
vote  and  eleven  were  absent.  But  among 
the  nations  opposed  were  Great  Britain, 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  49 

France,  Russia  and  Japan.  Among  the 
nations  joining  the  United  States  in  an 
affirmative  vote  were  Germany,  Austria- 
Hungary,  Italy,  Denmark,  Holland,  Bel- 
gium, Norway  and  Sweden.  But  no 
final  decision  was  reached  on  the  question. 
Mr.  Choate  said  a  year  later,  in  an  ad- 
dress before  the  New  York  State  Bar 
Association,  "It  was  not  possible,  in  the 
face  of  the  great  commercial  nations  that 
opposed  it,  nations  likely  at  any  time  to  be 
engaged  in  war,  to  press  the  question 
further." 

Now,  under  the  stress  of  war,  President 
Wilson  has  revised  this  American  pro- 
posal. It  still  stipulates  absolute  freedom 
of  the  seas  but  it  carries  the  important 
amendment  that  the  seas  may  be  closed 
in  whole  or  in  part  * '  by  international  ac- 
tion for  the  enforcement  of  international 
covenants."  In  fact  that  is  precisely 
what  has  occurred  during  this  world  war. 
The  seas  have  been  ''closed  in  whole" 
to  the  commerce  of  Germany  and  the 


50         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

Central  Powers  through  the  international 
action  of  the  nations  of  the  Entente;  and 
this  action  has  been  taken  in  order  to  en- 
force '* international  covenants"  because 
of  treaties  broken  and  public  law  spurned 
by  Germany  and  her  allies.  And  the 
result  has  been  economic  pressure  of  the 
most  drastic  character.  The  ocean-borne 
commerce  of  the  Central  Nations  has 
been  not  merely  reduced  but  destroyed. 
Their  ships  are  interned  in  hostile  ports 
of  all  the  seven  seas.  Even  the  lawless 
submarines,  while  damaging  the  com- 
merce of  their  foe,  have  not  helped  their 
own.  And  these  are  all  acts  of  war  in 
a  time  of  war.  Manifestly  should  the 
freedom  of  the  seas  be  abridged  through 
the  joint  action  of  a  league  of  nations,  to 
enforce  "international  covenants"  against 
a  nation  that  had  broken  a  covenant,  the 
resulting  economic  pressure  would  be  of 
overwhelming  severity.  No  nation,  how- 
ever powerful,  could  withstand  it  for  a 
long  period;  especially  when  many  kinds 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  51 

of  economic  pressure  were  being  applied 
at  the  same  time,  through  all  the  other 
international  agencies  that  have  been  de- 
scribed. 


VII 

napoleon's  decrees  and  the  kaiser's 
submarine 

WHEN  Napoleon  was  struggling  for 
the  masteiy  of  Europe,  in  the 
early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
much  as  the  Emperor  of  Germany  has 
been  struggling  for  it  during  the  early 
years  of  this  century,  he  saw  that  his  most 
determined  and  stubborn  foe  was  Eng- 
land. And  then,  as  now,  the  ocean-borne 
commerce  of  England,  in  relation  to  the 
commerce  of  the  world,  was  tremendously 
large.  Manifestly  the  way  to  strike  hard 
against  the  island  kingdom  was  to  strike 
her  commerce.  Napoleon  struck  through 
an  embargo  and  William  II  through  the 
submarine.  In  the  Berlin  Decree  of  1806 
Napoleon  declared  a  drastic  prohibition 
against  all  trade  with  Great  Britain. 
This  was  immediately  answered  from  Lon- 
52 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  53 

don  by  retaliatory  Orders  in  Council  forbid- 
ding trade  with  France.  Napoleon,  not  to 
be  outdone,  promulgated  his  famous  Milan 
decree,  making  lawful  prize  of  all  vessels 
submitting  to  British  search  or  taxation. 
These  decrees,  for  both  England  and 
France,  were  definite  acts  of  war,  and  were 
so  intended.  But  to  a  nation  across  the 
ocean,  the  young  republic  of  the  United 
States,  they  were  also,  in  effect,  acts  of 
war,  although  this  country  was  a  neutral. 
In  1807  the  United  States  adopted  an 
embargo  in  an  endeavour  to  protect  its 
foreign  trade  through  compelling  England 
and  France  to  either  make  less  restrictive 
or  abolish  altogether  their  repressive  com- 
mercial policies.  This  purpose  was  de- 
clared by  the  Government  when  it  pro- 
claimed the  embargo,  it  being  officially 
stated  that  it  was  believed  that  '*by 
teaching  foreign  nations  the  value  of 
America's  foreign  commerce  and  produc- 
tion, they  will  be  inspired  with  a  dispo- 
sition to  practise  justice." 


54         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

So  one  hundred  and  ten  years  ago  this 
country  undertook  to  apply  economic 
pressure  to  accomplish  an  international 
purpose,  that  of  justice.  And  looking 
back  at  the  results,  with  the  advantage  of 
a  perspective  of  over  a  century,  it  is  en- 
tirely clear  that  we  failed  in  our  aim. 
Neither  England  nor  France  was  forced 
through  our  action  to  change  its  drastic 
commercial  policy.  In  fact,  the  chief 
sufferer  was  this  country  itself.  Our  for- 
eign trade  fell  off  from  $108,300,000  to 
$22,400,000.  in  a  single  year.  Channing, 
in  making  a  survey  of  our  endeavour  to 
apply  economic  pressure,  says  in  his 
"Jeffersonian  System":  '*The  Jefferson- 
Madison  policy  of  war  through  commer- 
cial restriction  had  not  worked  well  in 
practice.  And  when  our  Minister  to  Eng- 
land, William  Pinkney,  took  up  with 
George  Canning,  the  British  Prime  Min- 
ister, the  matter  of  lifting  the  embargo, 
he  had  to  bear  the  biting  but  probably 
true  statement  that  Canning  would  be 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  55 

glad  to  facilitate  the  removal  of  the 
embargo  as  a  measure  of  inconvenient 
restriction  upon  the  American  people." 
There  were  other  acts  in  the  way  of  non- 
intercourse  legislation,  embargoes  and 
endeavours  at  commercial  reprisal  adopted 
by  this  country  both  before  and  after 
1807.  But  this  one  example  is  typical 
of  all  the  others.  So  it  can  be  presented 
as  a  historical  precedent  and  the  claim 
freely  admitted  that  it  does  not  prove  the 
case  for  economic  pressure.  Nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  let  it  be  definitely  stated, 
does  it  disprove  the  case.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  make  the  most  hurried  sur- 
vey of  the  conditions  surrounding  the 
American  embargo  of  1807  to  see  that 
they  were  such  that  economic  pressure 
could  not  possibly  avail  to  accomplish 
the  purpose  this  country  had  in  mind  in 
undertaking  to  apply  it. 

But  eighteen  years  had  elapsed  since 
we  had  adopted  the  federal  constitution. 
The  thirteen  colonies  that  had  been  in  the 


56  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

old  federation  were  members  of  the  new 
nation,  struggling  toward  unity  and  some 
semblance  of  collective  action.  Our  com- 
merce was  important  chiefly  to  ourselves, 
as  Canning  truly  intimated.  To  interdict 
it,  struck  a  heavy  blow  at  the  manufac- 
turing of  New  England  and  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania,  then  in  its  infanc3% 
and  produced  no  compensating  result  for 
the  agricultural  states  south  of  the  Poto- 
mac. 

But  this  embargo  of  1807  and  other 
similar  embargoes  of  the  time  failed  to 
inspire  other  nations  "with  a  disposition 
to  practise  justice"  because  they  were 
not  powerful  enough.  For  the  same  rea- 
son Napoleon's  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees 
failed.  And  for  the  same  reason  the 
British  Orders  in  Council  failed.  But 
these  failures,  by  throwing  into  high  relief 
the  cause  of  failure,  reveal  the  one  sure 
ground  on  which  economic  pressure  must 
be  based  in  order  to  succeed.  It  must  be 
strong  enough  to  be  effective,  otherwise 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  57 

it  is  futile.  And  the  whole  case  for  eco- 
nomic pressure  in  the  programme  of  a 
league  of  nations  is  grounded  on  the  fact 
that  international  economic  pressure, 
applied  by  a  league  of  nations,  would  be 
eflfective  against  any  other  nation,  how- 
ever strong  that  nation  might  be. 

There  is  another  manifest  difference  in 
the  conditions  surrounding  economic  pres- 
sure a  century  ago  and  those  that  would 
surround  economic  pressure  now.  Then  ' 
instantaneous  communication,  the  very 
spirit  and  heart  of  modern  world  organ- 
isation, did  not  exist.  It  took  many 
weeks  to  cross  the  ocean  in  sailing  ships. 
Even  on  land  there  were  no  facilities,  save 
the  slow-moving  coach,  to  bear  mail 
pouches  with  their  infrequent  letters. 
Under  the  heavy  handicap,  which  the 
archaic  machinery  of  communication  im- 
posed, it  is  not  improbable  that  these  em- 
bargoes of  a  century  ago  would  have 
failed,  even  if  the  United  States  had  been 
at  that  time  a  nation  of  great  commercial 


58  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

power  and  consequence.  So  that  this 
precedent,  so  often  referred  to,  could  not 
fairly  be  considered  to  have  either  bind- 
ing effect  or  much  illumination  for  our 
guidance  today. 

There  are  two  other  historical  examples, 
however,  that  may  have  some  point  and 
interest  in  the  present  discussion,  al- 
though they  cannot  be  said  to  present 
cases  parallel  with  the  one  that  will  exist 
when  a  league  of  nations  is  constituted. 
When  the  great  armada  was  being  formed 
by  Philip  of  Spain,  the  merchants  and 
bankers  of  Genoa  were  persuaded  by  the 
merchants  of  London  to  withhold  credit 
and  monies  from  the  Spanish  King.  This 
financial  pressure  was  sufficient  to  delay 
the  attack  of  the  armada  for  over  a  year 
and  by  that  time  Sir  Francis  Drake  and 
the  captains  of  Elizabeth  were  ready  to 
meet  the  shock.  It  would  seem  fair  to 
say  that  what  could  be  accomplished 
three  centuries  ago,  against  a  nation  as 
powerful  as  Spain  then  was,  might  cer- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  59 

tainly  be  accomplished  against  any  na- 
tion today  through  the  concerted  appli- 
cation, not  merely  of  financial  pressure 
but  of  all  forms  of  economic  pressure 
through  a  concert  of  nations  in  a  league. 
Another  example  that  may  bear  some 
information  of  service  belongs  to  the 
present  century  and  to  so  recent  a  warlike 
incident  as  the  dispatch  by  the  German 
Emperor  of  the  gun-boat  to  Agadir,  thus 
bringing  on  the  acute  crisis  with  France 
with  the  imminent  probability  of  general 
war  throughout  Europe.  While  that 
crisis  was  at  its  height,  I  chanced  to  be 
in  Paris  and  was  having  luncheon  one 
day  with  a  young  French  banker  of  the 
Credit  Lyonnais.  I  remarked  on  the  fact 
that  the  crisis  seemed  to  be  a  trifle  less 
acute  and  inquired  the  reason.  ' '  We  are 
withdrawing  our  French  investments  from 
Germany,"  was  the  rejoinder,  "and  that 
economic  pressure  is  relieving  the  situa- 
tion." Presently  the  press  of  the  world 
was  commenting  on  this  pressure  which 


60  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

France  was  applying  against  Germany 
and  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  this 
pressure  was  the  deciding  factor  in  reUev- 
ing  the  situation. 

In  each  of  these  cases,  it  should  be 
noted,  financial  pressure  was  being  applied 
against  a  single  nation  by  another  single 
nation.  But  even  so,  the  result  strongly 
supports  the  view  that  when  this  force 
is  applied  by  a  group  of  nations  against  a 
single  nation  pressure  would  prove  to  be 
irresistible.* 

*To  the  reader  who  wishes  to  ched:  up  these  American 
experiences  with  the  embargo  more  in  detail,  the  following 
citations  will  prove  of  interest: 

Embargoes  were  used  as  a  means  of  redress  by  the 
United  States  in  1794  (30  days),  1797.  1807  (27  months), 
1808  and  1812  (2  years). 

Commercial  intercourse  with  France  was  suspended  by 
an  act  of  Congress  of  June  13,  1798,  and  other  acta  of 
similar  character  followed. 

Commercial  intercourse  with  Great  Britain  was  sus- 
pended by  an  act  of  Congress  of  March  1,  1809.  The 
act  was  revived  on  February  2,  1811. 

Commercial  intercom-se  with  Dominican  ports  was  sus- 
pended by  act  of  Congress  of  February  28,  1806. 

The  United  States  Congress  in  1887,  by  way  of  reprisal, 
passed  an  act  empowering  the  President  to  deny  Canadian 
vessels  entrance  to  American  waters  and  to  deny  entry  to 
Canadian  products,  if  American  fishing  rights  should  be 
denied  or  abridged  in  Canadian  waters. 


VIII 

FIGHTING  FOREIGN  WARS  AT  HOME 

ONE  of  the  manifest  advantages  of 
economic  pressure  as  an  interna- 
tional force  is  the  way  in  which  it  can  be 
appHed.  Each  of  the  nations  in  a  league 
can  apply  it  instantly  from  within  and  the 
moment  the  announcement  is  made  that 
an  embargo  has  been  declared,  pressure 
begins  to  be  exerted.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  spend  billions  of  dollars  and  years  of 
time  in  building  armament  and  creating 
armies,  as  is  the  case  in  developing  effec- 
tive military  power.  The  modern  world 
is  prepared  to  exert  economic  power 
instantly.  Preparation  has  been  made 
through  the  agencies  of  commerce  and  in 
every  nation  machinery  is  at  hand 
through  which  economic  pressure  could 

be  applied.      The  stock  exchanges,  the 
61 


62  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

cables,  the  wireless,  the  international 
postal  service  and  the  wonderful  modern 
facilities,  already  referred  to,  for  com- 
munication and  intercommunication  con- 
stitute this  machinery.  It  is  worldwide 
in  its  extent  and  it  would  become  opera- 
tive the  moment  a  league  of  nations 
decided  to  set  it  in  motion. 

This  marked  advantage,  which  eco- 
nomic power  possesses  over  military 
power,  has  never  been  appraised  at  its 
•full  value.  But  one  needs  only  to  read 
the  briefest  survey  of  the  time  and  money 
required  to  organise  military  power  in 
England  and  the  United  States  during 
the  great  war  to  be  convinced  that  at 
least  in  this  important  particular  of  im- 
mediate availability,  economic  power  has 
an  overwhelming  advantage.  As  Secre- 
tary of  War  Baker  stated  in  his  testimony 
before  the  Senate  Conunittee  on  Military 
AlBFairs,  even  with  the  aid  of  a  draft  law 
it  required  all  the  time  between  April, 
1917,  and  January  1st,  1918,  to  raise  the 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS         63 

armed  forces  of  the  United  States  from 
9,524  oflScers  to  110,856  officers  and  from 
202,510  to  1,428,650  men.  And  despite 
the  fact  that  the  manufacturing  power 
of  the  nation  was  being  exerted  to  the  ut- 
most to  equip  this  army  during  the  period 
in  which  it  was  being  mobiHsed,  the  time 
was  not  sufficient  to  bring  this  equipment 
to  the  proper  standard  at  the  beginning 
of  1918.  MiKtary  power  today  repre- 
sents not  merely  man  power  but  the  or- 
ganised industrial  power  of  a  nation. 
That  has  been  established  in  the  expe- 
rience of  every  belligerent  country  and  it  is 
now  everywhere  conceded.  Even  when  the 
military  power  is  organised  and  equipped, 
a  considerable  time  is  required,  for 
the  transportation  of  men  and  supplies, 
before  it  can  be  effectively  used.  War- 
ships and  transports  must  be  sent  across 
the  sea  or  endless  trains  must  bear  soldiers 
and  munitions  to  the  scene  of  hostilities 
before  military  power  can  be  employed 
to  advantage.     But  economic  power,  on 


64  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

the  other  hand,  as  has  been  pointed  out, 
can  be  applied  instantly  from  within  by 
every  nation  and  its  eflfeet  becomes  in- 
stantly apparent. 

This  comparison  Is  not  developed  as  an 
argiunent  against  military  power  but  only 
to  make  clear  the  fact  that  economic 
power  in  the  modern  world  has  certain 
clear  and  great  advantages  over  military 
power.  In  most  of  the  proposals  for  a 
league  of  nations  to  follow  the  war,  the 
use  of  military  power,  either  exclusively 
or  as  a  last  resort,  is  provided  for.  In  the 
programme  outlined  by  the  League  to 
Enforce  Peace,  economic  pressure  is  pre- 
sented as  an  international  force  to  be 
used  before  military  force  is  employed.  So 
it  becomes  pertinent  to  outline  the  ad- 
vantages possessed  by  economic  power, 
although  making  clear  that  it  should  never 
be  looked  upon  as  the  final  but  only  as 
a  preliminary  power.  There  is  strong 
reason  to  believe,  however,  that  in  many 
cases  the  use  of  economic  pressure  as  a 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS         65 

preliminary  power  would  be  suiEcient  to 
bring  a  recalcitrant  nation  to  a  world 
court  for  a  settlement  of  its  differences, 
thus  avoiding  the  use  of  military  power 
altogether. 

In  addition  to  the  agencies  existing  to- 
day through  which  economic  pressure 
could  be  applied,  new  agencies  would 
doubtless  be  formed  in  connection  with 
a  league  of  nations.  An  international 
clearing  house  has  been  proposed  as  an 
essential  piece  of  machinery  for  the  serv- 
ice of  commerce  in  any  world  organisa- 
tion that  would  follow  the  war.  An  able 
Chicago  banker,  John  J.  Arnold,  Vice- 
President  of  the  First  National  Bank  of 
that  city,  a  man  who  is  considered  a  mas- 
ter of  the  intricacies  of  international  ex- 
change, has  long  urged  the  desirability 
of  an  international  clearing  house.  Such 
a  clearing  house  would  settle  balances 
between  nations  just  as  our  modern  clear- 
ing houses  now  settle  balances  between 
banks  in  cities  in  which  they  are  located. 


ee         BLOCKING  NEW  WAES 

Beyond  question  such  an  international 
clearing  house,  when  established,  would 
quickly  become  a  powerful  auxiliary 
agency  in  the  League  of  Nations,  helping 
to  give  it  stability  and  serving,  when 
occasion  arose,  as  a  new  instrumentality 
by  which  economic  pressure  could  be 
applied. 

^\Tien  Mr.  George  B.  Cortelyou  was  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  in  President  Roose- 
velt's Cabinet,  he  proposed  that  inter- 
national gold  certificates  might  be  secured 
by  gold  deposits  made  by  the  various 
commercial  nations  and  that  these  certifi- 
cates could  be  used  in  settling  trade  bal- 
ances, thus  avoiding  the  delay  and  danger 
of  transporting  the  actual  gold.  The 
Federal  Reserve  Banking  System,  which 
has  been  working  with  distinct  success 
in  the  United  States,  might  suggest  a 
model  for  an  international  banking  system 
to  accomplish  the  purpose  which  Secre- 
tary'- Cortelyou  had  in  mind.  If  this  took 
the  form   of  an    international    clearing 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  67 

house,  in  which  each  nation  should  make 
deposits  of  gold  in  direct  proportion  to 
the  volume  of  its  foreign  trade,  it  is  mani- 
fest that  a  piece  of  powerful  international 
machinery  would  be  established  that 
could  perform  prompt  and  important 
service  for  a  league  of  nations.  As  an 
illustration — if  a  nation  sought  to  make 
war,  in  defiance  of  its  pledge  to  seek  ad- 
judication of  its  differences  before  a 
world  court,  it  would,  as  an  automatic 
penalty,  forfeit  its  gold  deposits  with  the  v 
International  Clearing  House  and  also  its 
trading  rights  and  privileges  as  a  mem- 
ber nation.  The  procedure  and  penalty 
would  be  similar  to  the  suspension  or  ex- 
pulsion of  a  member  by  a  stock  exchange. 
Such  a  clearing  house  would  be  an 
agency  to  aid  in  preventing  war  and, 
what  is  even  of  greater  importance,  it 
would  be  a  powerful  agency  to  aid  in  pro- 
moting peace.  For  the  advantages  of 
being  a  member  of  such  a  world  clearing 
house  would  be  so  great — ^in  fact,  so  vital, 


68         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

— ^to  every  nation  that  it  is  hard  to  beheve 
that  they  would  be  surrendered,  except 
as  a  final  resort  in  a  desperate  situation. 
The  alternatives  would  be  the  way  of 
law  and  honour,  with  trade  advantages 
held,  or  the  way  of  war  and  broken  faith, 
with  trade  advantages  lost.  To  cause  a 
nation  to  pursue  the  second  way  would 
require  the  force  of  such  an  overwhelming 
demand  for  war,  among  its  own  people, 
that  nothing  could  resist  it.  Of  course 
such  a  situation  is  not  only  conceivable 
but  it  is  one  that  will  recur,  until  the 
practice  and  the  spirit  of  peace  have  be- 
come part  of  the  consciousness  of  the 
world. 


IX 

WAR  PREVENTION  VERSUS  WAR  COST 

ONE  apparently  strong  and  valid  ar- 
gument to  be  brought  against  the 
use  of  economic  pressure  is  that  it  would  ^ 
bring  great  loss  to  a  nation  applying  it. 
And  that  is  true.  But  it  is  equally  true 
that  this  loss  would  be  far  less  than  the  ^ 
loss  brought  by  war.  The  appropriations 
of  the  United  States  for  war  purposes  in 
1915,  a  year  after  the  great  war  broke, 
but  two  years  before  we  entered  it  our- 
selves, were  $158,000,000.  For  the  year 
1918,  the  war  appropriations  have  already 
reached  the  great  total  of  $7,527,338,716. 
This  vast  sum,  fifty  times  greater  than 
the  sum  appropriated  in  1915,  represents 
the  war  cost  for  only  a  single  nation. 
The  annual  cost  of  the  war  of  all  the 
nations  engaged  in  it  is  many  times  that 
69 


70  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

sum.  And  the  total  cost  of  the  war  from 
the  beginning  represents  a  sum  equal, 
undoubtedly,  to  the  value  of  all  the  prod- 
ucts of  all  the  belligerents  for  a  generation. 
At  the  beginning  of  1918  it  was  estimated, 
after  careful  computations,  that  the  cost 
of  the  war  to  Germany  represented  one- 
third  of  the  total  wealth  which  the  German 
Empire  had  built  up  through  centuries. 
And  the  cost  to  the  other  nations  is  rel- 
atively as  great.  In  comparison  to  the 
staggering  sums  involved,  the  loss  to  com- 
merce from  the  application  of  economic 
pressure  would  be  extremely  small.  This 
would  be  true  even  if  the  entire  export 
and  import  trade  of  all  the  belligerent 
nations  should  be  sacrificed. 

In  1912  the  imports  of  France  amounted 
to  $1,588,553,000  and  the  exports  to 
$1,295,528,000.  The  imports  of  Germany 
for  the  same  year  were  $2,544,557,000  and 
the  exports  $2,131,718,000.  The  imports  of 
Austria-Hungary  were  $722,030,000  and 
the  exports  $554,973,000.    For  the  United 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  71 

Kingdom  the  imports  were  $3,623,794,000 
and  the  exports  $2,371,073,000.  Italy's 
imports  were  $714,471,000  and  exports 
$462,607,000.  Japan's  imports  were  $308,- 
258,000  and  exports  $261,258,000.  The 
United  States  had  imports  of  $1,653,265,- 
000  and  exports  of  $2,170,320,000. 

These  great  totals  represent  much  less 
than  the  yearly  cost  of  the  war  to  each 
of  the  belligerents.  The  official  figures 
issued  by  the  United  States  Treasury 
Department,  giving  the  cost  of  the  Euro- 
pean war  up  to  August  1st,  1917,  showed 
that  the  expenditures  of  the  United  King- 
dom aggregated  $26,705,000,000,  and  that 
the  daily  war  cost  was  $25,000,000.  For 
France,  the  total  expenditures  had  been 
$16,530,000,000  with  a  daily  war  cost  of 
$18,500,000.  For  Italy  the  aggregate 
cost  was  $5,050,000,000  with  a  daily  ex- 
penditure of  $7,000,000.  With  the  Cen- 
tral Powers,  Germany  had  made  aggre- 
gate expenditures  reaching  $19,750,000,- 
000  with  a  daily  cost  of  $25,000,000,  the 


72  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

same  daily  cost  as  that  of  Great  Britain. 
Austria-Hungary  had  war  expenditures 
that  equalled  $9,700,000,000,  with  a  daily 
war  cost  of  $13,000,000.  As  1918  opened, 
the  daily  cost  of  war  to  the  United  States 
had  mounted  to  the  same  great  total  of 
$25,000,000. 

The  statement  of  these  figures  makes 
clear  the  wide  disproportion  between  the 
cost  of  war  and  the  cost  of  preventing  war 
through  the  use  of  economic  pressure. 
But  manifestly  it  is  a  false  assumption 
to  say  that  the  nations  in  a  league  would 
have  all  their  outgoing  and  incoming  com- 
merce destroyed  when  they  joined  in 
applying  economic  pressure  to  a  recal- 
citrant member.  The  most  that  could 
happen  would  be  the  total  loss  of  trade 
which  each  nation  in  the  League  had  with 
the  nation  against  which  economic  force 
was  being  directed.  To  some  degree  this 
loss  would  be  met  by  increased  trade 
among  the  nations  of  the  League  with 
each  other  but  for  the  purposes  of  a  com- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  73 

parison  we  shall  give  to  war  the  benefit 
of  every  possible  doubt  and  assume  that 
the  entire  volume  of  trade  which  the 
recalcitrant  nations  had  with  the  other 
members  of  the  League  would  represent 
a  complete  loss.  Even  on  this  basis  it  is 
apparent  that  the  cost  of  a  war  that 
might  possibly  be  avoided  is  very  greatly 
in  excess  of  any  conceivable  loss  that 
might  be  entailed  through  the  application 
of  economic  pressure. 

The  trial  balance  that  is  being  con- 
sidered is  of  commerce  alone  and  no  ac- 
count is  being  taken  of  the  destruction 
of  life  and  the  other  great  human  losses 
that  come  with  war.  But  this  strict 
commercial  accounting  shows  a  heavy 
debit  against  war. 

A  criticism  has  been  made  of  the  use  of 
economic  pressure  by  Mr.  Hamilton  Holt, 
the  able  editor  of  The  Independent,  and 
by  others  to  the  effect  that  the  burden, 
in  applying  economic  pressure,  would  be 
borne  unequally  by  the  signatory  nations. 


74         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  a  small  na- 
tion, in  a  given  case,  might  suffer  a  greater 
trade  loss  than  a  large  nation,  and  this  is 
possible.  But  this  inequality  can  be  met 
by  making  the  share  of  the  total  loss  of 
trade  which  each  nation  would  bear  di- 
rectly proportionate  to  the  amount  of 
its  foreign  trade.  By  thus  pro-rating  the 
loss  on  the  basis  of  the  ability  of  each  na- 
tion to  bear  it  absolute  fairness  would  be 
secured.  The  League  of  Nations  which 
would  apply  the  economic  pressure  could 
equitably  determine  the  amount  of  the 
resulting  loss  which  each  nation  should 
assume.  Even  if  this  were  not  done  the 
loss  to  each  nation  would  be  far  less  than 
the  loss  which  would  be  entailed  by  war; 
so,  it  is  reasonable  to  expect,  few  contro- 
versies would  arise  from  the  distribution 
of  the  loss  suffered  in  preventing  the  dam- 
age and  destruction  of  war. 


WOMEN,  CHILDREN  AND  EMBATTLED 
NATIONS 

IN  addition  to  the  loss  that  would  be 
suflFered  by  the  nations  applying  eco- 
nomic pressure,  the  objection  most  strong- 
ly urged  against  its  adoption  by  a  league 
of  nations  is  that  its  effect  would  be  heav- 
iest on  non-combatants.  This  objection 
will  not  stand  before  analysis.  For,  as 
the  less  cannot  exceed  the  greater,  eco- 
nomic pressure  alone,  as  a  preliminary 
force  to  prevent  war,  will  never  be  so 
hard  on  women  and  children  and  other 
non-combatants  as  economic  pressure  in 
time  of  war,  reinforced  and  intensified  by 
all  the  other  rigours  of  war. 

Belgium  and  Northern  France,  Serbia 
and  Rumania,  every  country  that  has 
been  occupied  by  an  enemy  in  this  war, 
75 


76  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

offers  pathetic  and  overwhelming  proof 
of  the  suffering  which  war  brings  to  non- 
combatants.  In  many  ways  it  is  suffer- 
ing with  a  sharper  edge  than  that  borne 
by  soldiers  on  the  fighting  line.  War  as 
it  has  been  waged  by  Germany  is  no  re- 
specter of  persons.  The  Bryce  report 
presents  damning  evidence  of  the  grievous 
wrongs  done  the  women  and  children  and 
old  men  of  Belgium,  wrongs  that  have 
gone  to  the  point  of  bearing  many  of 
them  away  to  servitude.  And  this  rec- 
ord has  been  matched  in  Poland,  Ar- 
menia, Serbia  and  Rumania,  at  least  as 
far  as  physical  suffering  is  concerned. 

The  strikes  which  broke  out  in  Berlin 
and  Vienna  early  in  1918  were  due  largely 
to  the  sufferings  which  war  had  brought 
to  workers  and  their  families,  far  behind 
the  battle  lines.  The  blockade  had 
hemmed  Germany  in  completely  from  the 
sea,  and  pressure  through  lack  of  food  and 
other  supplies  was  greater  on  civilians 
than  on  the  soldiers  and  sailors.     This 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  77 

has  been  due  to  the  fact  that  the  latter 
are  being  looked  after  by  all  the  belliger- 
ents even  before  the  needs  of  women  and 
children  are  considered.  For  such  is  the 
imperious  rigour  of  war  that  nothing  is 
permitted  to  stand  in  its  way.  The  case 
is  fully  established  by  this  war  that  eco- 
nomic pressure  affects  non-combatants 
quite  as  much  as  it  does  combatants,  and 
that,  in  addition,  they  have  to  bear  many 
losses  and  dangers  that  are  peculiar  to  war. 
This  objection,  moreover,  seems  to 
wholly  overlook  the  fact  that  economic 
pressure  is  proposed  as  a  sanction  to  put 
behind  international  courts  so  that  their 
use  will  be  compelled  in  the  settlement  of 
differences  between  nations  and  law  be 
substituted  in  the  place  of  war.  If  eco- 
nomic pressure  against  a  nation  succeeds 
in  a  given  case,  and  war  is  avoided,  it  is 
clear  that  that  nation  has  escaped  con- 
tending with  the  military  forces  of  the 
other  nations,  as  well  as  with  their  eco- 
nomic forces.     In  all  wars  the  first,  in- 


78  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

deed  the  immediate  result,  is  commercial 
non-intercourse,  which  is  economic  pres- 
sure in  the  most  complete  and  hostile  form. 
So  it  is  plain  that  a  nation  at  war  sufifers, 
both  through  its  combatants  and  its  non- 
combatants,  from  all  the  losses  and  ravages 
of  war,  including  economic  pressure. 

But  there  is  even  a  broader  argument 
to  bring  against  this  stock  objection. 
The  present  war  has  shown  for  all  the 
world  and  for  all  time  that  the  old  dis- 
tinctions between  combatants  and  non- 
combatants  have  largely  disappeared. 
Wars  are  no  longer  limited  to  the  fighters 
on  sea  and  land.  Embattled  nations  are 
drawn  up  on  continental  battle  lines. 
Industries  fight.  Women  and  children 
and  old  men  make  munitions.  Railways 
and  steamship  lines  are  organised  and 
devoted  to  war  uses.  Everything  and 
everybody  is  mobilised.  The  Red  Cross 
forms  children  and  women,  as  well  as  men, 
into  a  great  army  of  mercy  behind  the 
lines,  drawn  from  every  village  in  so  vast 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS         79 

a  country  as  the  United  States.  Hoover, 
through  the  Food  Administration,  out- 
Hnes  menus  which  an  opinionated  and 
self-rehant  democracy  accepts  with 
scarcely  a  protest.  Garfield  specifies  the 
number  of  shovels  of  coal  that  can  be  fed 
to  the  furnace  and  marks  the  temperature 
the  household  thermometer  should  regis- 
ter. And  when  the  President  issues  an 
order  taking  over  all  the  railroads,  a  coun- 
try that  has  been  grounded  in  the  sacred 
right  of  property  and  always  believed 
that  individual  initiative  was  the  Amer- 
ican's birthright,  does  little  more  than 
mark  the  day.  All  of  this  means  simply 
that  we  perceive,  as  England  and  France 
and  Germany  and  all  the  belligerents 
have  perceived,  that  war  today  is  a  surg- 
ing, resistless  struggle  of  all  the  human 
and  industrial  and  financial  power  of 
every  nation  engaged. 

It  is  the  overwhelming  consciousness  of 
this  all  inclusive  nature  of  modern  war 
that  has  developed  the  strongest  argu- 


80         BLOCKING  NEW  WAES 

ment  that  has  ever  been  presented  in 
favour  of  abolishing  war.  In  a  truer  way 
than  we  are  apt  to  grasp,  war  is  destroy- 
ing war.  This  is  not  a  pacifist  idea,  but 
one  that  is  based  on  nature's  primal  law 
and  need  of  self-preservation.  Men  see 
that  the  enginery''  of  war  which  they  have 
created,  largely  in  the  last  generation, 
will  destroy  themselves.  The  submarine, 
the  airship,  the  poisonous  gases,  the  cur- 
tains of  fire,  the  tanks,  the  great  guns — 
they  have  been  loosed  from  the  brain  of 
man  and  are  running  wild  in  the  world 
like  beasts  of  the  jungle,  seeking  whom 
they,  may  devour — and  they  have  found 
man,  their  creator.  Not  only  are  they 
destroying  him,  but  they  are  destroying 
also  the  civilisation  he  has  slowly  reared 
through  the  centuries.  It  is  this  hideous, 
hydra-headed  monster  of  war  which  the 
democratic  nations  a^  convmced  that 
Germany  is  responsible  lor  and  they  are 
determined  to  slay  it,  for  the  protection 
both  of  Germany  and  of  themselves. 


XI 

**THE   POWER   OF    THE    PURSE " 

FOR  centuries  nations  have  used  eco- 
nomic pressure  for  accomplishing  the 
most  fundamental  reforms  in  their  own 
governments.  It  has  been  steadily  oper- 
ating in  Germany  to  produce  results  that 
are  almost  revolutionary.  Von  Beth- 
mann-HoUweg  resigned  as  the  Imperial 
Chancellor  of  Germany  in  July,  1917. 
There  was  much  discussion  as  to  the  rea- 
sons for  the  resignation,  but  there  was  no 
mistaking  the  fact  that  the  force  which 
compelled  it  was  *'the  power  of  the 
purse,"  exerted  in  the  refusal  of  the 
Reichstag  to  pass  the  war  credits  asked 
for.  So  powerful  a  minister  as  the  Chan- 
cellor, who  had  been  able  to  stand  against 
Von  Tirpitz  and  the  Junkers  on  a  number 
of  vital  questions  and  who  had  the  sup- 
81 


82  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

port  of  the  Kaiser,  could  not  resist  the 
economic  pressure  applied  by  the  Reichs- 
tag. And  when  the  Kaiser  named  Dr. 
Michaelis  as  his  successor,  without  con- 
sulting his  parliament,  he  created  so 
many  difficulties  for  him  that  he  could 
not  last  the  year  out.  Having  in  its  con- 
trol the  power  before  which  Von  Beth- 
mann-HoUweg  had  to  bend  and  break, 
the  Reichstag  was  able  to  exact  from 
the  new  Chancellor  a  pledge  that  it  would 
be  consulted  on  all  important  questions 
of  foreign  policy;  and  it  forthwith  put  the 
agreement  to  the  test  by  committing  Dr. 
Michaelis  to  its  formula  of  a  peace  with- 
out annexations  and  in  the  reply  to  the 
note  of  Pope  Benedict  it  enforced  the  in- 
clusion of  its  own  peace  resolution  em- 
bodying this  formula.  But  although  this 
second  Chancellor  was  willing  to  bend 
under  pressure,  he  incurred  the  ill  will 
of  the  Reichstag  on  a  number  of  his  acts, 
especially  in  his  indifference  or  tacit  ap- 
proval toward  the  propaganda  Von  Tir- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  83 

pitz  and  the  Fatherland  party  spread 
through  the  army,  and  he  had  to  go. 
Then  an  unprecedented  event  occurred, 
one  fraught  with  promise  for  a  demo- 
cratic Germany,  or,  at  least,  for  a  Ger- 
many in  which  the  people  will  have 
larger  control  of  their  government.  Count 
von  Hertling,  called  to  the  Chancellor- 
ship by  -the  Kaiser,  delayed  his  accept- 
ance until  he  had  consulted  leaders  in  the 
Reichstag  and  been  convinced  that  he 
could  secure  a  majority  support.  This 
was  equivalent,  practically,  to  confirma- 
tion by  the  Reichstag,  much  the  same, 
at  least  in  effect,  as  the  confirmation  of 
the  appointees  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  by  the  Senate,  or  to  the 
vote  of  confidence  in  a  new  French  min- 
istry by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  So 
here  is  responsible  government  finally 
taking  form  in  Germany,  in  the  stress  of 
war,  through  *'the  power  of  the  purse." 
If  Germany  can  employ  economic  pres- 
sure to  make  her  own  autocratic  govern- 


84  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

ment,  supported  by  an  archaic  constitu- 
tion, responsive  to  the  people  in  a  much 
greater  degree  than  ever  before,  Ger- 
many could  assuredly  employ  economic 
pressure  as  a  force  to  maintain  world 
peace,  as  a  member  of  a  league  of  na- 
tions. And  Germany,  with  a  responsible 
government  controlled  by  the  people,  has 
been  considered  at  all  times  as  a  nation 
qualified  for  membership  in  such  a  league 
by  President  Wilson,  ex-President  Taft 
and  other  leading  statesmen  among  the 
Entente  Allies.  It  would  be  a  significant 
and  impressive  illustration  of  the  effec- 
tiveness of  economic  pressure  if,  largely 
through  its  power,  Germany  was  able 
to  accomplish  such  reforms  within,  that 
it  could  become  part  of  a  league  that 
would  employ  economic  pressure  to  se- 
cure and  maintain  peace  throughout  the 
world.  But  such  an  illustration  would  be 
but  one  of  many  repetitions  of  history. 
The  contest  in  Germany,  between  auto- 
cratic power,  represented  by  the  Emperor 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  85 

and  his  ministers,  and  the  Reichstag, 
representing  the  people,  is  strangely  sim- 
ilar to  the  long  contest,  of  three  centuries 
ago,  between  the  King  and  Parliament  in 
England.  And  the  two  contests  for  re- 
sponsible government,  to  be  controlled 
by  the  people,  are  identical  in  the  force 
employed  by  the  people  to  gain  their 
ends.  In  both  cases  that  force  was  *'the 
power  of  the  purse, ' '  a  phrase  first  coined 
in  the  bitter  struggle  against  the  English 
Crown  led  by  Hampden  and  Pym  in  the 
Commons. 

A  force  that  produced  results  favourable 
to  the  people,  in  England  and  in  Germany, 
and  in  many  other  countries  as  well, 
would  appear  to  be  fashioned  for  effective 
use  by  a  league  of  nations.  And  eco- 
nomic pressure  applied  against  a  single 
nation  by  a  league  of  nations  would  be 
much  more  powerful  and  much  quicker 
in  producing  results  than  it  has  proved 
to  be  when  applied  by  part  of  the  people 
of  a  country — ^it  is  never  all  of  them,  but 


86  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

only  a  majority — ^against  their  govern- 
ment. 

The  English  Minister  of  Blockade,  Lord 
Robert  Cecil,  has  presented  some  ex- 
tremely interesting  data  from  English 
history  that  bears  on  this  point.  Li  a 
statement  issued  early  in  1918  he  said 
he  was  convinced  that  the  economic 
weapon  would  prove  a  most  useful  arm 
for  the  enforcement  of  the  League's 
decrees.  '*  Every  student  of  the  League 
of  Nations  idea,"  he  said,  ''finds  certain 
diflSculties  at  the  outset.  One  of  these 
is  how  the  decrees  of  such  a  league  can 
be  enforced.  It  is  natural  to  draw  an 
analogy  between  the  growth  of  interna- 
tional law  and  order  and  the  growth  of 
law  and  order  within  an  individual  coun- 
try, and,  while  I  admit  that  such  an  anal- 
ogy must  not  be  carried  too  far,  I  find 
much  that  is  instructive  in  the  develop- 
ment of  our  English  Commonwealth  from 
the  state  of  anarchy  that  existed  over  a 
long  period  after  the  War  of  the  Roses. 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  87 

How  did  a  strong  English  King  finally 
gain  ascendency  and  control  over  the  war- 
ring barons?  He  instituted  a  central  body 
which  enforced  decrees  on  the  barons 
largely  by  economic  means.  I  am  con- 
vinced that  that  is  the  line  upon  which  a 
league  of  nations  may  hope  to  proceed 
effectively.  My  experience  in  the  present 
war  has  taught  me  the  great  power  of  an 
economic  weapon.  How  would  a  league 
of  nations  use  it.^^  Well,  for  example,  if 
any  nation  went  to  war  with  another, 
without  submitting  its  dispute  to  inter- 
national consideration,  it  would  forthwith 
be  cut  off  from  commercial  intercourse 
with  every  member  of  the  League.  That 
would  be  a  tremendous  weapon  and  one 
that  few  if  any  nations  would  care  to 
defy.'* 


xn 

REMOVING  THE  CAUSES  OF  WAR 

THE  causes  of  war  are  often  commer- 
cial. And  there  is  good  gromid  for 
the  view  that  the  causes  of  war  must  be 
removed,  or  at  least  greatly  reduced,  if 
there  is  to  be  a  just  and  durable  peace  in 
the  world.  For  international  courts  will 
avail  little,  it  is  strongly  urged  by  some, 
unless  the  danger  of  war  is  overcome. 
Of  course  the  quick  and  manifest  re- 
joinder is,  to  a  criticism  so  superficial, 
that  just  as  courts  within  nations  are  not 
set  up  to  remove  the  causes  of  crime  but 
to  piuiish  criminals,  so  international 
courts  would  be  established,  not  to  re- 
move all  causes  of  war,  but  to  settle  the 
disputes  between  nations  that  might  lead 
to  war.  Still  there  is  a  deep-seated  feeling 
in  the  world  that  wars  will  recur,  in  some 
88 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  89 

way,  unless  they  can  be  controlled  at 
their  source. 

The  business  men  of  the  world  admit 
at  once  that  the  international  trade,  in 
which  they  engage,  has  been  in  the  past 
and  will  continue  to  be  a  possible  cause 
of  war.  And  they  are  prepared  to  pro- 
pose a  plan  that  will  work  directly  toward 
controlling  that  cause  even  if  it  can  scarce- 
ly be  hoped  to  remove  it  wholly.  And 
the  plan  is  this — ^let  the  international 
chamber  of  commerce,  which  had  been 
making  steady  and  strong  progress  in  the 
ten  years  before  the  war,  be  developed 
into  a  powerful  agency  for  developing 
and  distributing  the  commercial  opinion 
of  the  world,  on  all  questions  of  inter- 
national trade  that  might  carry  within 
them  the  seeds  of  future  wars.  For 
example,  the  congress  of  the  interna- 
tional chamber  held  a  largely  attended 
session  in  Paris  in  the  summer  of  1914, 
shortly  before  the  war  broke,  and  de- 
cided to  begin  a  plan  to  determine  by 


90  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

referendum — a  plan  that  has  proved  to 
be  so  highly  successful  with  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  of  the  United  States — the 
opinion  of  the  business  men  of  the  world 
on  various  matters  affecting  international 
trade.  In  fact,  it  was  decided  to  submit 
a  definite  referendum  as  to  what  consti- 
tuted disloyal  or  imfair  competition  be- 
tween nations  in  international  trade, 
but  war  was  hard  on  the  heels  of  the  Con- 
gress and  the  referendum  was  never 
taken.  But  this  plan,  which  was  agreed 
upon  before  the  war,  should  be  put  into 
operation  when  the  war  is  over.  There 
can  be  little  reason  to  doubt  that  in  the 
light  of  knowledge,  which  friendly  dis- 
cussion would  throw  upon  disputed  ques- 
tions of  trade,  adjustment  and  concilia- 
tion would  often  result.  This  would  be 
meeting  the  possible  trade  causes  of  war 
in  constructive  fashion,  in  a  spirit  of 
accommodation,  and  many  of  them  would 
be  settled.  As  Edward  A.  Filene  of  Bos- 
ton said  before  the  War  Convention  of 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS         91 

the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  United 
States,  "There  is  no  real  reason  why 
nations  should  spend  valuable  energy 
in  blocking  and  hampering  each  other. 
There  is  business  enough  in  the  world  to 
satisfy  the  rightful  ambition  of  all 
peoples."  And  he  gave  this  clear  chal- 
lenge of  international  business,  broaden- 
ing through  the  centuries  into  a  co-ordi- 
nated unity,  ''Whether  we  think  in  terms 
of  the  business  weKare  of  our  own  par- 
ticular nations  alone,  or  in  terms  of  the 
general  progress  and  stability  of  the  world, 
this  much  is  clear:  It  will  not  do  to  leave 
to  traditional  diplomacy  and  to  ever- 
changing  cabinets  and  governments  alone 
the  handling  of  those  business  difficulties 
which  will  menace  the  successful  conduct 
of  international  trade  and  threaten  the 
durable  peace  of  the  world. " 

In  order  that  international  business 
difficulties  might  not  be  left  to  govern- 
ments alone,  through  sheer  lack  of  effec- 
tive means  for  bringing  to  bear  upon  them 


92  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

the  collective  business  judgment  of  the 
world,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the 
United  States  has  appointed  a  committee 
"to  make  a  study  of  the  question  of  the 
reconvening  of  the  International  Congress 
of  Chambers  of  Commerce  at  the  earliest 
time  that  is  judged  expedient." 

It  is  not  improbable  that  an  inter- 
national chamber  of  commerce  might 
become  an  essential  factor  in  the  proposed 
league  of  nations.  In  some  countries 
the  chambers  of  commerce  have  oflBcial 
status  and  connection  with  their  respec- 
tive governments.  And  whether  they 
had  such  connection  or  not  they  could 
become  a  powerful  agency  for  mobilising 
good  will  among  the  nations,  by  the  ac- 
cepted give-and-take  spirit  of  business, 
by  developing  an  established  policy  of 
fair  dealing,  under  which  trade  discrimi- 
nations would  disappear,  and  by  con- 
sciously weaving  the  bands  of  commerce 
into  bonds  of  peace. 

Such  an  international  organisation  as 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  93 

part  of  a  league  of  nations  would  serve 
two  great  purposes — it  would  constantly- 
work  toward  the  removal  of  the  commer- 
cial causes  of  war,  and  it  would  work  defi- 
nitely, if  war  was  impending  for  political 
or  any  other  cause,  toward  the  quick  and 
effective  use  of  economic  pressure  against 
a  nation  that  refused  to  take  its  case  for 
judgment,  to  the  World  Court.  Centuries 
ago  these  two  purposes  were  served  by  a 
strong  commercial  organisation,  that  of 
the  Hanseatic  League.  The  trading  cit- 
ies in  this  League  flourished  through  gene- 
rations, held  together  by  the  common 
bond  of  commercial  self-interest.  They 
became  so  powerful  that  they  steadily 
gained  trading  rights  and  privileges,  even 
against  the  opposition  of  governments 
and  rulers.  And  it  is  interesting  to  be 
reminded  by  the  Anglo-American  mer- 
chant, H.  Gordon  Selfridge,  in  his  recent 
book,  "The  Romance  of  Business,"  that 
a  member  city  that  broke  the  trade  laws 
and  rules  of  the  League  was  punished  by 


94  BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

having  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
League  withdrawn.  For  example,  Bre- 
men in  1356  was  expelled  from  the 
League,  because  she  failed  to  punish  one 
of  her  merchants  who  had  broken  a  rule 
of  the  League  in  regard  to  trading  with 
Flanders,  and  for  thirty  years  she  suffered 
the  loss  of  trade  advantages — sufiFered 
from  economic  pressure.  At  another  time 
Brunswick  came  under  the  ban  because 
of  delinquency  and  for  six  years  sufiFered 
such  great  trade  loss  that  her  people 
were  brought  to  poverty.  And  before 
the  ban  was  raised  two  burgomasters 
and  eight  important  citizens  of  Bruns- 
wick went  to  Lubeck,  the  head  city  of 
the  League,  oflFered  abject  confession  of 
wrong-doing  and  craved  for  pardon  in 
bare  feet  and  on  bended  knee.  And  the 
League  used  economic  pressure  not  only 
on  one  of  its  members  but  even  against 
a  strong  outside  nation.  So  powerful  a 
monarch  as  Henry  IV  of  England  was 
forced  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  League, 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS         95 

largely  through  an  embargo  by  which  it 
closed  the  Baltic  ports  to  English  com- 
merce. While  the  power  of  the  League 
waned  as  the  power  of  nations  grew,  three 
of  the  old  Hanse  cities,  Lubeck,  Ham- 
burg and  Bremen,  were  enabled,  by  the 
treaty  of  Westphalia  in  1648,  to  retain 
certain  privileges  as  "free  cities"  and 
these  were  continued  until  so  recent  a 
time  as  1888,  when  Bismarck  finally 
forced  their  surrender. 

This  historical  example,  although  not 
applicable  to  the  international  conditions 
that  will  follow  the  war,  at  least  serves 
the  point  of  showing  how  strong  the  bond 
of  commerce  is  and  how  effective  eco- 
nomic pressure  can  be  made.  An  inter- 
national chamber  of  commerce,  with  all 
the  facilities  for  securing  united  action 
now  available  and  with  the  authority  of 
a  league  of  nations  behind  it,  could  be 
expected  to  do  much  toward  removing 
the  causes  of  war,  as  well  as  toward 
making  a  league  of  nations  so  strong  in 


96         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

its  economic  power  that  wars  which 
threatened  could,  in  many  cases,  be 
blocked  and  wars  which  started,  in  other 
cases,  could  be  stopped;  and,  if  the  last 
ditch  was  reached,  and  armed  force  was 
required  to  overcome  a  recalcitrant  na- 
tion, such  an  organisation  would  greatly 
strengthen  military  power  by  mobilising, 
in  support  of  it,  the  industry  and  com- 
merce of  the  law-abiding  nations.  Against 
such  combined  military  and  economic 
might,  arrayed  in  defense  of  international 
law,  any  nation  would  have  to  strike  its 
colours. 


XIII 

THE  BIBLE   WARRANT   FOR  A   LEAGUE   OP 
NATIONS 

DR.  LYMAN  ABBOTT,  both  seer  and 
editor,  has  seldom  used  his  great 
gifts  of  interpretation  in  a  more  illmni- 
nating  way  than  in  one  of  his  Knoll 
papers,  published  in  the  Outlook  in  Sep- 
tember, 1917,  under  the  heading,  * '  Christ's 
League  to  Enforce  Peace."  With  Dr. 
Abbott's  permission,  this  paper  is  pub- 
lished here  as  a  chapter  of  this  book.  It 
gives  a  biblical  background  to  the  League 
of  Nations  programme  which  had  not  been 
presented  until  it  became  a  subject  for 
the  gifted  pen  of  Dr.  Abbott.  The  article 
is  as  follows: 

**  Jesus  Christ  compared  his  words  to 
seeds.     They   are   the   expressions   of   a 
spirit  which  inspires  life,  and  of  the  prin- 
97 


98         BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

ciples  which  guide  that  life  in  right  chan- 
nels. They  are  not  rules  to  regulate  con- 
duct. If  'Lay  not  up  for  yourselves 
treasures  upon  earth,  where  moth  and 
rust  doth  corrupt,  and  where  thieves 
break  through  and  steal,'  were  a  mere 
rule  to  regulate  conduct,  it  would  be  a 
sufficient  compliance  to  provide  cedar 
chests  for  our  clothes  and  a  safe  de- 
posit box  for  our  money.  They  are  not 
substitutes  for  thought,  they  are  incen- 
tives to  thinking.  As  seeds  they  were 
intended  to  be  developed  by  his  disciples 
and  intelligently  applied  to  the  varying 
circumstances  and  conditions  of  an  ever- 
varying  life.  This  truth  must  be  borne 
in  mind  by  the  reader,  if  he  is  to  under- 
stand this  paper. 

"In  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  Matthew 
are  recorded  certain  principles  which 
Christ  recommended  to  his  disciples  for 
the  settlement  of  any  controversies  which 
might  arise  among  them.  These  prin- 
ciples are  embodied  in  a  rather  specific 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS  99 

prescription  of  the  methods  which  he 
instructed  them  to  pursue.  These  prin- 
ciples and  methods  appear  to  me  to  be 
as  appHcable  to  controversies  between 
nations  as  between  individuals.  They 
are  as  follows: 

Moreover,  if  thy  brother  shall  trespass 
against  thee,  go  and  tell  him  his  fault  between 
thee  and  him  alone;  if  he  shall  hear  thee,  thou 
hast  gained  thy  brother.  But  if  he  will  not 
hear  thee,  then  take  with  thee  one  or  two 
more,  that  in  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  wit- 
nesses every  word  may  be  established.  And 
if  he  shall  neglect  to  hear  them,  tell  it  unto 
the  church;  but  if  he  neglects  to  hear  the 
church,  let  him  be  unto  thee  as  an  heathen 
man  and  a  publican. 

*'Two  remarks  must  be  made  in  expla- 
nation of  this  counsel. 

*'When  the  counsel  was  given,  the 
Church  did  not  exist.  The  word  here 
rendered  '  Church '  is  one  used  through- 
out the  Old  Testament  in  the  Greek  ver- 
sion, current  in  Christ's  time,  to  designate 
the  popular  assembly  of  the  Hebrew 
people,  a  body  half-way  between  a  mass- 


100        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

meeting  and  a  representative  congress, 
probably  sometimes  one,  sometimes  the 
other.  It  might  be  compared  to  a  'con- 
stituent assembly. ' 

*  *To  treat  a  man  as  a  heathen  man  and 
a  publican  or  Roman  tax-gatherer  was 
simply  to  have  no  dealings  with  him. 
The  heathen  were  not  subjected  to  penal- 
ties of  any  sort  in  Judea;  the  Jews  sim- 
ply had  no  intercourse  with  them.  The 
meaning,  then,  of  Christ's  ultimatum,  as 
it  would  have  been  imderstood  bv  his 
disciples,  would  be:  If  your  fellow-mem- 
ber defies  the  public  opinion  of  the  Chris- 
tian community  to  which  you  both  be- 
long, have  nothing  more  to  do  with  him. 

**The  great  statesmen  of  the  world, 
horrified  by  this  terrible  world  war,  are 
endeavouring  to  find  some  better  method 
for  the  settlement  of  international  diflS- 
culties  than  'wager  of  battle,'  and  curi- 
ously, and  as  it  seems  to  me  very  signifi- 
cantly, have  hit  upon  the  method  which 
Christ  commended  to  his  disciples  nine- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        101 

teen  centuries  ago.  If  I  interpret  Christ's 
counsel  correctly,  these  statesmen  are 
following  Christ,  whether  they  know  it  or 
not.  For,  if  we  apply  the  spirit  of  his 
counsel  to  international  action,  it  would 
mean,  first.  Diplomacy;  second,  Arbitra- 
tion; third,  Judicial  Procedure;  fourth,  to 
enforce  such  procedure.  Non-intercourse. 
To  interpret  and  apply  this  counsel  a 
little  more  fully: 

"I.  If  in  the  community  of  nations  a 
controversy  arises  between  two  or  more  of 
them,  the  first  step  toward  a  settlement  is 
diplomacy — that  is,  personal  negotiation 
between  the  two  nations.  The  object 
of  this  negotiation  should  be  to  gain  a 
brother.  Its  spirit  and  its  purpose  should 
be  pacific;  its  aim,  to  find  some  common 
ground  on  which  the  two  nations  can 
agree.  Austria  had  a  complaint  against 
Serbia.  The  Austrian  Crown  Prince  had 
been  assassinated,  and  the  Austrian  Gov- 
ernment believed  that  the  Serbian  Gov- 
ernment had  been  accessory  to  the  assassi- 


102        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

nation.  If  the  charge  was  true,  the  tres- 
pass committed  by  the  Serbian  Govern- 
ment was  very  great.  But  Austria  showed 
no  desire  in  her  negotiations  to  gain  a 
brother.  She  treated  Serbia  as  a  criminal. 
She  went  with  a  demand  in  one  hand  and 
a  threat  in  the  other.  And  the  demand 
was  one  to  which  no  nation  could  accede 
under  threat,  without,  by  that  very  act, 
surrendering  her  independence. 

*  *  Christ  also  advises  that  these  negotia- 
tions between  the  complainant  and  the 
supposed  transgressor  be  private.  'Go 
and  tell  him  his  fault  between  thee  and 
him  alone.'  Recently  there  has  been 
in  certain  quarters  a  great  outcry  against 
secret  diplomacy.  There  has  been  in  this 
coimtry  some  demand,  though  not  very 
widespread  or  influential,  for  the  abolition 
of  the  secret  sessions  of  the  Senate.  It  is 
said  that  secret  negotiations  have  led  to 
wars,  and  that,  if  all  negotiations  were 
conducted  in  the  open,  war  would  be 
avoided.     And  it  is  probably  true  that 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        103 

some  wars  have  been  prepared  for,  and 
perhaps  promoted,  by  secret  negotiations. 
' '  But  it  is  certain  that  wars  have  often 
been  prevented  by  secret  negotiations. 
There  are  many  international  questions 
which  cannot  be  discussed  in  the  open 
forum  without  arousing  popular  preju- 
dices and  exciting  popular  passions.  There 
is  a  strong  popular  feeling  in  this  country 
against  unlimited  Japanese  immigration. 
There  is  a  strong  popular  feeling  in  Japan 
hostile  to  American  discrimination  against 
Japanese  immigrants.  Popular  discus- 
sion in  the  press  of  America  excites  race 
prejudice  against  the  Japanese.  Popular 
discussion  in  the  press  of  Japan  excites 
race  prejudice  against  the  Americans. 
There  would  be  little  danger  of  war  be- 
tween the  two  countries  if  we  could 
only  unite  our  forces  in  a  successful  war 
against  the  yellow  press  of  both  countries. 
If  the  Japanese  question  could  be  taken 
out  of  the  public  forum,  there  is  little 
doubt  that,  by  friendly  negotiations  be- 


104        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

tween  the  Japanese  mission  now  in  this 
country  and  our  President  representing 
the  Democratic  party  and  EHhu  Root 
representing  the  Republican  party,  an 
agreement  could  be  reached  which  would 
calm  the  excessive  self-esteem  of  the  one 
people  and  the  excessive  fears  of  the 
other. 

'*II.  If  diplomacy  quietly  conducted 
between  the  two  parties  in  a  spirit  of  mu- 
tual brotherhood  fails,  arbitration  is  the 
next  step  in  Christ's  league  to  enforce 
peace.  It  is  evident  that  the  two  or  three 
witnesses  are  to  hear  both  sides  of  the 
incipient  quarrel.  Their  opinion  is  to  be 
listened  to  by  both  parties  to  the  quarrel. 
There  is,  indeed,  no  suggestion  that  they 
possess  authority  to  decide.  Authorita- 
tive decision  is  reserved  for  the  third  stage 
in  this  proceeding  toward  peace.  But 
they  are  not  partisans  of  the  complainant 
taken  by  him  to  overbear  the  accused. 
They  are  witnesses,  taken  to  hear  the 
story,   to   reach   their   conclusion   upon 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        105 

it,  and,  if  no  agreement  can  be  reached 
by  their  aid,  to  report  to  the  constituent 
assembly  their  judgment  upon  the  un- 
determined issue.  My  readers  will  re- 
member how  urgent  were  the  entreaties 
of  England,  France,  Italy,  and  Russia 
to  Germany  and  Austria  to  submit  the 
issue  between  Austria  and  Serbia  either 
to  the  Hague  Tribunal  for  decision  or  to  a 
conference  of  the  Powers  for  amicable 
settlement,  and  how  emphatic  and  almost 
contemptuous  was  the  refusal. 

*  *III.  This  was  as  far  as  Christian  civil- 
isation had  gone  in  1914  in  its  prepara- 
tions to  avoid  war.  Reformers  had  urged 
the  constitution  of  a  supreme  court  of 
nations  to  which  any  nation  might  be 
summoned  to  give  account  of  its  claims. 
But  no  such  court  had  been  constituted. 
The  imperfectly  organised  Hague  Trib- 
unal could  pass  only  on  such  questions 
as  were  submitted  to  it  by  the  consent  of 
both  the  parties  to  the  controversy. 
Christ  recommended  to  his  disciples  a 


106        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

further  step — the  creation  of  some  sort 
of  body — ^Pariiament,  Congress,  Supreme 
Court,  Constituent  Assembly,  Ecclesia — 
to  which  either  party  could  report  its  com- 
plaint, a  body  which  would  have  power 
to  declare  an  authoritative  judgment. 

''And  if  the  other  party  would  not 
accept  the  judgment,  what  then? — ^war  to 
enforce   the   decision?    No!    Non-inter- 


course. 


IV.  If  he  will  not  hear  the  assembly, 
let  him  be  unto  thee  as  an  heathen  man 
and  a  publican. 

''Let  us  imagine  that  in  1914  the  eight- 
een nations  now  in  alliance  against  the 
Central  Powers  had  constituted  a  com- 
munity of  nations ;  that  they  had  an  inter- 
national tribunal  or  assembly  with  power 
to  hear  and  decide  international  ques- 
tions; and  that  when  Germany  and  Aus- 
tria refused  to  submit  the  issue  between 
Austria  and  Serbia  to  decision  by  that 
tribunal,  the  Powers  had  instantly  and 
automatically   pronounced   a   decree   of 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        107 

non-intercourse.  What  would  have  hap- 
pened? Every  foreign  ambassador  in 
Germany  and  Austria  would  have  been 
called  home.  Every  German  and  Aus- 
trian ambassador  would  have  been  sent 
home.  The  mails  between  other  coun- 
tries and  Germany  and  Austria  would 
have  been  suspended.  Telegrams  of 
every  description  would  have  ceased.  The 
world's  ports  would  have  been  hermetical- 
ly sealed  against  the  offender.  No  exports 
could  have  passed  from  the  Central  Powers 
to  other  countries,  no  imports  could  have 
passed  from  other  countries  into  their 
territories.  Germany  and  Austria  would 
have  been  as  effectually  isolated  as  if 
they  had  been  transported  bodily  to 
Mars.  The  present  blockade,  which  is 
threatening  to  bring  Germany  to  her 
knees,  would  be  insignificant  by  the  side 
of  such  a  world  blockade.  WTiat  nation 
would  venture  to  defy  it?  What  nation 
defying  it  once  would  ever  venture  to  defy 
it  a  second  time? 


108        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

*  *  It  is  true  that  such  a  league  as  is  here 
foreshadowed  would  not  absolutely  pre- 
vent war.  Germany  might  have  invaded 
Holland,  Belgium,  France  in  the  west, 
and  Russia,  Serbia,  Bulgaria,  Rumania 
in  the  east,  to  get  by  her  arms  the  supplies 
which  commerce  refused  to  her.  It  might 
have  been  necessary  to  unite  the  armies 
of  the  world  in  defence  of  the  right  to  de- 
cree and  enforce  non-intercourse  against 
a  defiant  nation.  But  if  such  a  league 
had  existed  in  1914,  it  would  not  have 
required  three  years  of  robbery  on  the 
land  and  piracy  on  the  sea  to  call  it  into 
existence. 

* '  If  any  ecclesiastical  reader  is  inclined 
to  think  that  the  counsels  embodied  in 
the  passage  here  interpreted  and  applied 
to  international  affairs  were  intended  by 
Christ  simply  as  a  direction  for  Church 
discipline,  I  must  refer  him  to  my  Com- 
mentary on  Matthew  for  a  statement  of 
the  reasons  why  I  cannot  agree  with  him; 
if  any  reader  thinks  they  were  intended 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        109 

only  for  the  settlement  of  private  dis- 
putes, I  reply  that  the  same  principles 
apply  to  the  settlement  of  disputes  be- 
tween organisations  as  between  indi- 
viduals. If  any  one  thinks  it  extraordi- 
nary that  the  world  should  not  have  long 
since  discovered  and  adopted  Christ's 
league  to  enforce  peace,  if  it  is  really  sug- 
gested by  his  teaching,  I  reply  that  he 
who  believes,  as  I  do,  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  divine  leader  of  mankind  will  not 
think  it  extraordinary  that  he  should  still 
be  in  advance  of  the  age  and  waiting 
patiently  for  his  disciples  to  overtake 
him." 


XIV 

A  COURT  HOUSE  FOR  THE  WORLD 

IN  every  country  in  the  world,  if  it  is  so 
much  as  half  civilised,  there  is  some 
form  of  court.  And  yet  the  world  itself 
is  without  one.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  the 
Permanent  Court  of  Arbitration,  agreed 
to  at  the  Hague  Conference  of  1899,  but 
that  is  a  piece  of  judicial  machinery,  in 
form,  without  any  force  to  give  it  effec- 
tiveness. And  the  utter  futiUty  of  this 
Court  to  either  stop  or  delay  war  was 
demonstrated  so  completely  in  1914  that 
it  doesn't  seem  possible  that  the  world 
will  care  to  have  another  demonstration. 
It  is  inconceivable  that  a  league  of  na- 
tions should  establish  a  court  and  permit 
it  to  be  a  mere  shadow  without  any  power 
to  give  it  substance.  Too  much  blood 
has  been  shed  and  debts  too  stupendous 
110 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        111 

piled  up  for  future  generations  to  pay, 
to  allow  a  peace  conference  to  decide  on 
a  court  that  would  be  but  a  hollow  mock- 
ery. As  a  distinguished  jurist  of  the 
Netherlands,  M.  Asser,  said  in  the  Hague 
Conference  of  1907,  in  speaking  of  the 
Permanent  Court  of  Arbitration, ' '  Instead 
of  a  Permanent  Court  the  Convention 
of  1899  gave  only  the  phantom  of  a  court, 
an  impalpable  spectre,  or,  to  speak  more 
precisely,  it  gave  a  secretarial  and  a  list. 
And  when  two  Powers  having  a  diflFerence 
to  settle  demand  that  the  doors  at  The 
Hague  be  opened  to  them,  the  Secretary- 
General,  thanks  to  the  munificence  of  Mr. 
Carnegie,  can  show  them  a  splendid  hall, 
but  instead  of  a  court  he  can  only  present 
to  them  a  list  on  which  they  may  find 
a  large  number  of  persons  of  a  recog- 
nised competence,  etc." 

The  Supreme  Court  of  Arbitral  Justice, 
which  engaged  so  much  of  the  attention 
of  the  Second  Hague  Conference  in  1907, 
was  not  agreed  upon,  but  if  it  had  been. 


112        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

there  is  small  ground  to  believe  that  it 
would  have  been  more  than  a  ""  phantom 
of  a  court,"  for  no  provision  was  made 
that  hearings  before  it  should  be  enforced. 
And  the  World  Court,  proposed  and  sup- 
ported by  a  considerable  group  in  this 
country,  had  the  same  inherent  weakness, 
which  undoubtedly  explained  its  failure 
to  obtain  any  broad  popular  endorse- 
ment either  in  the  United  States  or  in 
Europe. 

Fully  realising  the  fatal  weakness  in 
these  plans  for  international  courts,  the 
League  to  Enforce  Peace  made  economic 
and  military  force  the  sanction  that  should 
compel  signatory  nations  to  present  their 
differences  for  hearing.  And  from  the 
moment  the  League  was  organised  in 
Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia,  on  June 
17th,  1915,  it  has  steadily  gained  support 
for  its  programme.  The  reason  is  manifest. 
In  a  world  at  war  the  doctrine  was  pro- 
claimed that  peace  when  it  came  could 
only  be  maintained  if  it  rested  on  ulti- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        113 

mate  force.  Instead  of  beating  swords 
into  ploughshares  it  was  proposed,  in  ef- 
fect, that  they  be  kept  in  their  scabbards 
ready  to  be  drawn  in  defence  of  law.  This 
seemed  strangely  like  a  paraphrase  from 
the  Bible  in  grounding  belief  in  the  bring- 
ing of  peace  with  the  sword.  It  was  seen 
at  once  that  this  was  not  militarism, 
against  which  democratic  nations  have 
fought,  but  simply  placing  effective  power 
behind  courts  so  that  they  would  be  re- 
spected and  used. 

Such  a  sane  and  practical  plan  won 
support  from  the  responsible  statesmen  of 
the  world — ^from  men  charged  with  the 
leadership  of  their  nations  in  the  great 
war.  Above  the  battle  smoke  they  saw 
arise,  courts,  envisaging  the  reign  of  law, 
supported  and  enforced  by  economic  and 
military  power.  "The  best  security  for 
peace,"  said  Mr.  Lloyd  George  in  Janu- 
ary, 1917,  "will  be  that  nations  band 
themselves  together  to  punish  the  peace- 
breaker.     In   the    armouries    of   Europe 


114        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

every  weapon  will  be  a  sword  of  justice. 
In  the  government  of  men  every  army 
will  be  the  constabulary  of  peace, ' '  And 
M.  Ribot  in  June,  1917,  while  the  Premier 
of  France,  said  in  an  address  before  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  '*We  echo  the 
noble  desire  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  Henceforth  justice  must  have 
as  a  guarantee  the  League  of  Nations 
which  is  organising  before  our  eyes,  and 
which  tomorrow  will  be  mistress  of  the 
world."  Mr.  Asquith  in  an  authorised 
statement  in  November,  1917,  said,  ''We 
must  aim  at  something  more  than  the 
negative  functions  of  policing  the  world 
and  preventing  breaches  of  the  peace; 
at  nothing  less  than  a  partnership  of  the 
nations  in  the  joint  piu*suit  of  a  freer  and 
fuller  life  for  the  countless  miUions  who, 
by  their  efforts  and  their  sacrifices,  gene- 
ration after  generation,  maintain  the  prog- 
ress and  enrich  the  inheritance  of  hu- 
manity. Nor  must  our  reconstruction 
concern  Europe  alone.    We  must  aim  at 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        115 

setting  up  a  world-wide  peace  partner- 
ship, of  which  all  the  civilised  commu- 
nities will  be  members  on  a  level  footing, 
with  equal  rights  and  reciprocal  duties." 
In  the  United  States  ex-President  Taf t 
and  hundreds  of  the  leading  public  men 
of  the  country  and  thousands  of  important 
journals  have  supported  the  League  of 
Nations  programme.  The  repeated  en- 
dorsements from  President  Wilson  have 
been  read  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  And 
it  can  be  safely  stated  that  the  President 
has  expressed  the  sentiment  of  his  coun- 
trymen in  all  of  these  endorsements,  of 
which  the  following  is  typical  of  many 
others:  ''So  sincerely  do  we  believe  in 
these  things,  that  I  am  sure  I  speak  the 
mind  and  wish  of  the  people  of  America, 
when  I  say  that  the  United  States  is  will- 
ing to  become  a  partner  in  any  feasible 
association  formed  in  order  to  realise  these 
objects,  and  to  make  them  secure  against 
violation.  ...  I  am  sure  the  United 
States  would  wish  their  Government  to 


116        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

move  along  the  line  of  ...  a  universal 
association  of  nations  to  maintain  invio- 
late the  security  of  the  highway  of  the 
seas  for  the  common,  unhindered  use  of 
all  the  nations  of  the  world,  and  to  pre- 
vent any  war  begun,  either  contrary  to 
treaty  covenants  or  without  warning  and 
full  submission  of  the  cause  to  the  opinion 
of  the  world — a,  virtual  guarantee  of  terri- 
torial integrity  and  political  independ- 
ence. ...  I  feel  confident  that  the  world 
is  even  now  upon  the  eve  of  a  great  con- 
summation, when  some  common  force 
will  be  brought  into  existence  which  shall 
safeguard  right  as  the  first  and  most 
fundamental  interest  of  all  peoples  and 
all  governments,  when  coercion  shall  be 
summoned  not  to  the  service  of  political 
ambition  or  selfish  hostility,  but  to  the 
service  of  common  order,  common  jus- 
tice, and  common  peace." 

The  court  house  for  the  world,  in  view 
of  the  innumerable  expressions  of  strong 
support  from  statesmen  of  all  the  belliger- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        117 

ent  countries,  including  those  of  Germany 
and  Austria-Hungary,  seems  to  have  been 
long  in  coming  to  nations  in  sore  need  of 
it.  For  war,  that  has  been  given  up  as  a 
means  in  settling  differences  within  na- 
tions, has  continued  as  a  final  arbiter  be- 
tween nations.  The  world  has  groped 
blindly  toward  a  sane  internationalism 
that  wo\ild  gather  up  and  use  the  tested 
experience  from  nations,  without  seeking 
to  destroy  them.  It  has  depended  too 
much  on  other  international  forces,  failing 
to  perceive  the  essential  place  and  power 
of  justice.  Among  the  fighting  nations 
are  seen  the  church,  the  temple  or  the 
mosque,  but  religion  has  not  ended  war. 
In  the  libraries  of  all  the  warring  nations 
are  the  works  of  Goethe  and  Schiller, 
of  Hugo  and  Balzac,  of  Shakespeare  and 
Milton,  of  Tolstoi  and  Turgenieff — all 
imperishable  contributions  to  the  world's 
intellectual  life,  but  still  they  have  not 
ended  war.  The  orchestras  of  Paris,  Ber- 
lin, London   and  New   York   play  the 


118        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

music  of  Beethoven,  Tschaikowsky,  Ber- 
lioz and  Haydn,  and  music  is  one  of  the 
most  spiritual  of  the  arts,  but  it  has  not 
ended  war.  Painting  and  sculpture  are 
part  of  the  common  heritage  of  mankind 
but  they  have  not  ended  war.  The  world 
has  had  churches  and  schools  and  libraries 
and  galleries — ^but  the  world  like  every 
other  city  and  country  needs  a  Comi: 
House.  That  Court  is  within  our  grasp. 
What  is  needed  is  to  give  it  force  through 
economic  pressure  and  military  power 
that  will  compel  its  use  and  it  will  become 
a  bulwark  of  civilisation,  protecting  the 
world  from  the  waste  and  futility  and 
the  utter  tragedy  of  war. 


XV 

THE  SWORD  AS  FINAL  ARBITER 

THERE  were  few  illusions  among  the 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thoughtful 
people  who  gathered  from  nearly  all  parts 
of  the  United  States,  at  Independence 
Hall  in  Philadelphia  in  June,  1915,  to 
consider  proposals  and  plans  for  lessening 
the  dangers  of  war.  For  ten  months  the 
great  war,  steadily  becoming  greater,  had 
been  in  progress.  By  general  agreement, 
even  more  impressive  because  scarcely 
spoken,  being  in  the  minds  of  all  present, 
the  four  proposals  formulated  for  the  pro- 
gramme of  the  League  to  Enforce  Peace, 
there  organised,  were  for  international 
adoption  when  the  war  was  over.  That 
agreement  was  interpretative  of  the  sane 
and  practical  spirit  which  pervaded  this 
short  but  historic  conference.  Not  only 
119 


120        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

was  there  no  illusion  about  stopping  the 
war  abeady  on,  there  was  no  illusion 
in  regard  to  preventing  future  wars  by  the 
pacifist  formula  of  optional  arbitration  or 
sanctionless  courts.  Of  course  the  doc- 
trine of  non-resistance,  even  in  a  city 
whose  hall  of  government  bore  the  bronze 
eflSgy  of  W^illiam  Penn,  was  not  so  much 
as  mentioned.  Instead  of  that,  this  great 
peace  conference  drew  the  sword,  and  in 
a  noble  preamble  to  its  platform  pointed 
to  it  as  the  final  arbiter  in  any  league  of 
nations  that  might  hope  to  supplant  war 
by  law  in  settling  disputes  between  gov- 
ernments. 

The  founder  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, Thomas  Jefferson,  when  he  pre- 
sented the  Declaration  of  Independence 
in  the  same  Hall,  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
nine  years  before,  had  concluded  it  with 
the  martial  words  of  ultimate  and  com- 
plete sacrifice:  ''To  this  declaration  we 
pledge  our  lives,  our  fortunes  and  our 
sacred  honour.'*    The  President  of  Har- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        121 

vard  University,  A.  Lawrence  Lowell, 
placed  in  the  forefront  of  the  platform 
of  the  League  to  Enforce  Peace,  reported 
by  the  Committee  of  which  he  was  the 
Chairman,  words  that  implied  the  same 
supreme  pledge:  ** Throughout  five  thou- 
sand years  of  recorded  history  peace,  here 
and  there  established,  has  been  kept,  and 
its  area  has  been  widened,  in  one  way 
only.  Individuals  have  combined  their 
efforts  to  suppress  violence  in  the  local 
community.  Communities  have  co-oper- 
ated to  maintain  the  authoritative  state 
and  to  preserve  peace  within  its  borders. 
States  have  formed  leagues  or  confedera- 
tions or  have  otherwise  co-operated  to 
establish  peace  among  themselves.  Al- 
ways peace  has  been  made  and  kept, 
when  made  and  kept  at  all,  by  the  supe- 
rior power  of  superior  numbers  acting  in 
unity  for  the  common  good.  Mindful  of 
this  teaching  of  experience,  we  believe 
and  solemnly  urge  that  the  time  has  come 
to  devise  and  to  create  a  working  union 


122        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

of  sovereign  nations  to  establish  peace 
among  themselves  and  to  guarantee  it  by 
all  known  and  available  sanctions  at  their 
command,  to  the  end  that  civilisation 
may  be  conserved,  and  the  progress  of 
mankind  in  comfort,  enlightenment  and 
happiness  may  continue." 

Then  followed  these  four  short  pro- 
posals: 

First:  All  justiciable  questions  arising  be- 
tween the  signatory  powers,  not  settled  by 
negotiation,  shall,  subject  to  the  limitations 
of  treaties,  be  submitted  to  a  judicial  tribunal 
for  hearing  and  judgment,  both  upon  the 
merits  and  upon  any  issue  as  to  its  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  question. 

Second:  All  other  questions  arising  be- 
tween the  signatories  and  not  settled  by  nego- 
tiation, shall  be  submitted  to  a  council  of  con- 
ciliation for  hearing,  consideration  and  recom- 
mendation. 

Third:  The  signatory  powers  shall  jointly 
use  forthwith  both  their  economic  and  mili- 
tary forces  against  any  one  of  their  number 
that  goes  to  war,  or  commits  acts  of  hostility, 
against  another  of  the  signatories  before  any 
question  arising  shall  be  submitted  as  pro-  . 
vided  in  the  foregoing. 

Fourth:  Conferences  between  the  signatory 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        1£3 

powers  shall  be  held  from  time  to  time  to 
formulate  and  codify  rules  of  international 
law,  which,  unless  some  signatory  shall 
signify  its  dissent  within  a  stated  period,  shall 
thereafter  govern  in  the  decisions  of  the  judi- 
cial tribunal  mentioned  in  Article  One. 

The  distinguishing  thing  in  these  pro- 
posals, of  course,  and  the  thing  which 
definitely  separates  them  from  the  pro- 
posals of  other  peace  organisations  is  the 
placing  of  force  behind  a  world  court, 
compelling  it  to  be  used.  And  why  not? 
Surely  the  world,  after  the  devastation 
and  destruction  of  the  present  war,  will 
come  to  the  place  where  peace  will  seem 
so  much  to  be  desired  that  it  is  even  worth 
fighting  for.  Many  will  say,  this  is  war 
itself,  the  very  thing  we  seek  to  prevent. 
But  let  it  be  stated  in  rejoinder  with 
overwhelming  emphasis,  that  such  a  war, 
if  it  should  be  required  as  a  last  resort, 
would  be  war  to  enforce  peace.  It  would 
be  war  to  establish  the  integrity  and 
authority  of  world  courts  that  the  nations 
had  joined  in  setting  up  and  had  joined 


124        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

in  agreeing  to  use.  In  a  word  such  a  war 
would  be  simply  the  use  of  power  to  en- 
force the  due  processes  of  international 
law  and  justice.  If  a  court  set  up  by  the 
people  is  flouted,  the  State,  through  its 
constitutional  oflScers  and,  if  necessary, 
through  its  armed  forces,  asserts  the  sov- 
ereign power  of  the  people  and  commands 
and  compels  respect  for  the  court.  That  is 
not  war — it  is  the  State  maintaining 
peace.  So  it  is  with  the  use  of  armed 
force  to  compel  a  recalcitrant  nation  to 
take  its  international  diflFerences  to  a  court 
instead  of  to  a  battlefield.  That  would 
not  be  war  but  the  exercise  of  military 
power  to  enforce  peace.  And  it  would 
frequently  happen  that  the  use  of  the 
great  power  of  international  commerce, 
applied  as  economic  pressure,  would  be 
suflScient  to  sober  a  nation  and  bring  it  to 
the  World  Court,  without  resort  to  mili- 
tary force. 


XVI 

BUSINESS  THE  PROTECTOR  OF  DEMOCRACY 

IN  all  countries  the  development  of  com- 
merce has  been  accompanied  by  a 
gradual  but  inevitable  development  of 
democracy.  So  general  is  this  that  the 
deduction  is  sound  that  between  the  two 
there  is  a  relation  of  effect  and  cause. 
The  reason  for  this  is  not  obscure  for  it 
inheres  in  the  very  nature  of  both  com- 
merce and  democracy.  They  both  stand 
for  co-operation  in  human  relationships. 
As  commerce  grew  it  became  a  constantly 
increasing  source  of  revenue  to  govern- 
ments and  secured  a  constantly  increasing 
number  of  rights  and  privileges.  Many 
of  these  came  after  long  struggle  but  they 
always  bore  witness  to  the  growing  power 
of  commerce,  which  won  them.  In  time, 
especially  in  English-speaking  countries, 
125 


126        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

commerce  became  included  in  the  encom- 
passing word  business,  which  stood  for 
the  whole  range  and  field  of  commercial 
enterprise.  Today  business  is  practically 
the  organised  life  of  the  world.  It  in- 
cludes in  every  country  countless  in- 
dividual concerns  and  corporations.  These 
are  often  grouped  in  associations  repre- 
senting their  respective  branches  of  busi- 
ness. The  whole  amazing  network  of  re- 
lations and  inter-relations  is  the  result  of 
co-operation  and  co-operation  is  the  essen- 
tial principle  of  applied  democracy. 

One  of  the  most  significant  conse- 
quences of  the  commercial  organisation  of 
the  modern  world  has  been  the  stimulus 
it  has  given  to  the  democratic  idea.  WTien 
men  meet  on  a  plane  of  equality  in  busi- 
ness and  develop  both  the  philosophy  and 
the  practice  of  democracy  it  becomes  in- 
evitable that  their  relations  with  their 
governments  should  work  surely  toward 
democratic  ideals  and  principles.  And 
that  fact  explains  much  of  the  democratic 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        127 

progress  that  has  been  going  on  all  over 
the  world.  Even  in  autocratic  nations 
where  government  has  continued  to  be 
largely  in  control  of  the  hereditary  nobil- 
ity there  has  grown  up  a  great  commercial 
class,  grounded  in  the  democratic  idea  of 
individual  worth,  opportunity  and  initia- 
tive and  from  this  class  the  government 
service  in  every  country  has  been  con- 
stantly recruited.  As  a  result  there  has 
been  a  steady  democratic  infusion  from 
business  that  has  profoundly  aflFected 
political  thought  everywhere,  because 
men  who  have  climbed  up  from  the  ranks 
seldom  lose  *'the  common  touch,"  how- 
ever influential  in  government  affairs  they 
may  become,  and  whatever  the  titles  they 
may  be  invested  with.  It  is  these  men 
who  are  a  material  part  of  the  leaven  of 
constructive  liberalism  in  every  country 
against  irresponsible  autocracy  on  one 
hand  and  irresponsible  democracy,  rep- 
resenting the  rule  of  the  mob,  on  the  other. 
In  the  international  reconstruction  toward 


128        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

which  the  world  is  fast  moving  they  may 
be  expected  to  bear  an  important  part. 
And  it  is  a  cheering  fact  to  recall  at  such 
a  time  that  their  training  and  their  views 
are  not  only  largely  democratic  but,  to  a 
considerable  degree,  international.  In 
business  within,  they  have  been  schooled 
in  the  democratic  practice  of  equality;  in 
business  without,  in  the  field  of  world 
trade,  they  have  learned  something  of 
international  forces  and  relationships. 

During  the  war  a  striking  illustration 
of  the  stabilising  influence  in  interna- 
tional affairs  of  business  men  has  been 
offered  in  the  work  of  the  International 
Sugar  Committee.  This  Committee  was 
composed  of  three  members  from  the 
United  States,  Mr.  Earl  D.  Babst,  Presi- 
dent of  the  American  Sugar  Refining  Co. ; 
Mr.  George  M.  Ralph,  Head  of  the  Sugar 
Division  of  the  Food  Administration,  and 
Mr.  William  A.  Jamison  of  Arbuckle 
Brothers,  and  there  were  two  members 
from  the  Allied  Governments,  Sir  Joseph 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        129 

White-Todd  and  Mr.  J.  Ramsay  Drake, 
both  of  England.  These  five  men  in  the 
fall  and  winter  of  1917-18,  by  co-operative 
buying  and  control  of  distribution,  suc- 
ceeded in  overcoming  an  almost  panic 
condition,  due  to  threatened  famine, 
stabilised  conditions  that  bordered  on 
demoralisation  and  established  an  equi- 
table balance  between  the  rights  of  pro- 
ducers and  consumers  in  all  of  the  Allied 
countries.  This  result  in  a  single  in- 
dustry is  indicative  of  what  business  men 
may  accomplish  in  the  new  international 
conditions  that  will  come  with  a  league 
of  nations. 

Another  illustration  that  is  even  more 
important  is  that  of  the  pooling  of  all 
shipping  interests  among  the  Entente 
Allies.  An  International  Shipping  Board 
was  formed  with  Mr.  P.  A.  S.  Franklin, 
President  of  the  International  Mercantile 
Marine,  as  Chairman,  and  Mr.  H.  H. 
Raymond,  the  Shipping  Controller  of  the 
Food  Administration,  as   the  American 


ISO        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

members,  and  with  Sir  Connop  Guthrie 
as  the  EngUsh  member.  And  this  Board 
took  under  control  the  unification  and  di- 
rection of  all  the  shipping  services  of  the 
Allies.  So  conservative  a  newspaper  as 
the  New  York  Times,  in  commenting  on 
this  radical  departure,  said:  ''This  war  is 
different  from  other  wars  in  that  its  re- 
sults will  be  economic  rather  than  terri- 
torial or  dynastic.  There  will  be  terri- 
torial readjustments  with  peace.  There 
have  been  dynastic  and  political  revolu- 
tions, and  there  will  be  more.  It  was  not 
intended  to  minimise  them  when  it  was 
suggested  that  they  were  rivalled  by  the 
passage  of  the  world  from  a  past  of  eco- 
nomic nationalism  into  a  future  of  eco- 
nomic internationalism. ' ' 

The  truth  is  the  league  of  nations  that 
has  been  fighting  the  war  for  democracy 
has  been  learning  how  to  apply  economic 
internationalism  as  a  force  to  maintain 
peace  when  a  greater  league  of  nations 
is  formed. 


XVII 

THE  VOICE  OF  THE  PEOPLE 

DEMOCRACY  in  its  advance  has 
kept  step  with  the  progress  of 
knowledge.  Not  until  the  war  was  recog- 
nised as  a  crucial  struggle  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  individual  liberty  did  it  set 
up  the  fundamental  issue  that  united  the 
democratic  nations  of  the  Old  and  New 
Worlds.  The  full  support  of  free  and  in- 
dependent men  came  only  through  a 
realisation  and  understanding  of  the  cause 
for  which  they  were  called  to  sacrifice 
and  die.  The  United  States  did  not  enter 
the  war  until  its  people  had  given  unmis- 
takable proof  of  their  conviction  and  will. 
How  was  this  proof  presented.'^  Through 
the  great  democratic  organ  of  public 
opinion,  the  press.  The  history  of  those 
anxious  days  of  oiu-  neutrality  shows 
131 


132        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

the  touchstone  was  appHed  to  the  sover- 
eign force  of  pubUc  opinion.  The  succes- 
sive pubHc  addresses  of  President  Wilson 
prior  to  April  6, 1917,  trace  the  emergence 
of  the  United  States  from  its  traditional 
policy  of  national  isolation.  Editorial 
comment  in  more  than  2,000  daily  news- 
papers assured  the  President  that  the 
people  were  with  him  at  each  step  toward 
the  final  call  to  arms.  How  carefully  the 
head  of  the  nation  studied  the  popular 
effect  of  these  messages  was  demonstrated 
by  the  fact  that  summaries  of  editorial 
opinion  embracing  extracts  from  several 
hundred  leading  newspapers  in  every  part 
of  the  country  were  laid  before  him  within 
twenty-four  hours  after  the  publication 
of  an  address  or  message.  These  sum- 
maries, made  by  the  Associated  Press,  not 
only  kept  the  President  informed  of  the 
state  of  the  public  mind  but  mobilised 
opinion  throughout  the  nation. 

Having  agreed  to  fight,  after  free  and 
open  discussion  through  the  press,  the 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        133 

people  of  the  United  States  utilised  the 
same  agency  in  mobilising  for  war.  The 
campaigns  to  conserve  our  resources  and 
to  finance  the  war  owed  their  success 
principally  to  the  support  of  the  news- 
papers. Printers'  ink  accomplished  for 
America  what  was  possible  in  Germany 
and  Austria  only  through  imperial  decree 
and  the  fear  of  armed  authority. 

Through  their  newspapers  the  people 
of  the  United  States  became  familiar 
with  the  principle  that  the  only  kind  of 
peace  worth  fighting  for  is  a  permanent 
peace,  based  upon  international  cove- 
nants. The  ideal  of  international  recon- 
struction was  launched  by  the  League  to 
Enforce  Peace.  Before  it  attained  con- 
crete form  in  the  platform  adopted  at 
Philadelphia,  in  June,  1915,  the  concep- 
tion had  gained  little  attention  outside 
the  circle  of  political  economists  and  ad- 
vanced political  thinkers.  A  nation 
trained  for  generations  to  cherish  the 
tradition  of  isolation  and  non-interference 


134        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

with  European  affairs  might  well  have  re- 
garded the  proposal  as  heresy.  As  a 
thesis  it  appealed  to  both  mind  and  imagi- 
nation; from  the  outset  it  had  the  support 
of  men  of  international  reputation;  but 
these  advantages  alone  could  not  have 
intrenched  the  idea  as  firmly  as  it  stands 
today  without  the  aid  of  the  press. 

A  careful  survey  of  editorial  opinion 
at  the  time  this  book  is  written  indicates 
that,  while  there  are  differences  of  opinion 
as  to  method,  the  general  plan  of  a  league 
of  nations  is  favoured  by  the  newspapers 
in  overwhelming  majority. 

The  attitude  of  the  press  is  significant 
because  upon  this  great  clearing  house  of 
public  opinion  will  rest  much  of  the  re- 
sponsibility for  the  success  of  the  plan 
once  it  is  adopted.  All  the  nations  are 
gaining  greater  respect  for  the  views  of 
their  neighbours .  The  telegraph,  the  sub- 
marine cable  and  the  telephone  rank  with 
the  railroad,  the  steamship,  the  automo- 
bile and  the  airplane  as  agencies  drawing 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        135 

mankind  into  one  great  family.  If  a  citi- 
zen with  a  quarrel  on  his  hands  knew  that 
his  neighbours  sided  with  his  opponent, 
he  might  think  twice  before  venturing  to 
gain  his  ends  by  force.  In  the  same  way 
a  .nation,  however  aggressive  and  ruth- 
less, would  hesitate  to  attack  another  if 
it  believed  the  other  nations  of  the  world 
would  net  support  its  quarrel. 

Here  is  where  the  machinery  of  an  inter- 
national court  and  forced  arbitration 
would  serve  to  block  an  outbreak  of  hos- 
tilities until  the  questions  at  issue  could 
be  laid  before  an  international  jury. 
Since  the  proceedings  of  such  a  tribunal 
would  be  public,  long  before  the  court  had 
handed  down  its  decision  the  issue  would 
have  gained  a  popular  verdict.  The  press 
of  the  world  would  act  as  unofficial  advo- 
cates and  the  case  would  be  tried  first 
at  the  bar  of  public  opinion. 

If  the  quarrel  reached  the  stage  where 
the  united  nations  decided  to  use  the 
trade  boycott  against  an  offending  mem- 


136        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

ber  of  the  league,  either  with  or  without 
military  force,  such  a  boycott  could  not 
be  successful  unless  it  were  backed  by  the 
people. 

In  fact,  public  sentiment  alone,  without 
official  action,  might  be  strong  enough  to 
exert  effective  economic  pressure  if  mo- 
bilised and  directed  by  the  united  efforts 
of  the  press.  This  is  the  idea  back  of  the 
1918  referendum  of  the  United  States 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  A  boycott  such 
as  this  plan  proposes  would  be  purely 
popular  and  without  government  sanc- 
tion. 

Under  the  domination  of  an  autocratic 
government  a  national  press  can  become 
a  powerful  instrument  to  advance  the  in- 
terests of  selfish  despotism.  But  the  free 
press  of  America,  uncensored  and  respon- 
sible only  to  the  people  upon  whom  it 
depends  for  support,  has  proved  itself 
one  of  the  most  effective  weapons  in  the 
arsenal  of  democracy. 


XVIII 

THE  NEW  DAY  AFTER  THE  WAR 

THE  great  war  is  in  its  fourth  devas- 
tating year  as  this  book  is  pubHshed. 
What  will  follow  it  in  the  way  of  world 
reorganisation  no  one  can  clearly  foresee. 
But  that  great  changes  are  impending  is 
no  longer  looked  upon  as  prophecy,  for 
their  necessity  and  inevitability  are  every- 
where understood  and  conceded. 

There  are  three  forms  which  these 
changes  could  conceivably  take. 

1,  Increased  imperialism  in  the  world 
— hy  that  is  meant  increased  militarism  and 
increased  territorial  empire  under  the  con- 
trol  or  sovereignty  of  a  single  nation. 

This  change  seems  to  be  impossible, 
for  to  bring  it  about  would  require  com- 
plete Germany  victory.  Unless  that  is 
achieved  imperialism  cannot  have  a  place 
187 


1S8        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

in  the  world  any  larger  after  the  war  than 
it  had  before  the  war,  for  the  allied  nations 
have  made  their  fight  for  the  underlying 
principles  of  democracy.  Their  govern- 
ments have  stated  in  the  most  definite 
form  that  they  were  agreed  in  favor  of 
equality  among  nations,  small  and  great, 
in  favor  of  each  country  determining  its 
own  government  and  in  favor  of  a  policy 
of  no  annexations. 

If  these  principles  should  suffer  defeat 
in  this  war  it  can  be  but  a  temporary  de- 
feat, for  these  principles  are  eternal  and 
must  ultimately  prevail.  And  they  must 
prevail  in  Germany  and  Austria  and  Tur- 
key, quite  as  much  as  in  France,  England, 
America  and  throughout  the  world.  To 
hold  to  any  other  view  is  to  deny  progress 
and  to  shut  out  the  light  of  history. 

A  change  that  would  represent  the 
farthest  possible  extreme  from  imperial- 
ism would  be: 

2,  Radicalism  in  the  extreme  form  it  has 
taken  in  Russia  under  the  rule  of  the  Bolshevi- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        139 

ki  or  in  the  form  represented  by  the  British 
Labour  Party. 

This  is  a  result  that  is  not  impossible 
in  the  sense  that  the  imperialistic  result 
appears  to  be,  but  it  is  highly  improbable. 
Representative  democracy,  before  the  war 
came,  had  gained  the  day  in  England, 
in  France,  Italy  and  America  and  it  will 
not  surrender  all  it  has  won,  in  a  thousand 
years  of  steady  progress,  to  the  red  flag  of 
socialistic  revolution.  But  this  is  not  said 
in  denial  of  the  profound  effect  which  the 
Russian  revolution  is  having  and  will 
continue  to  have  on  the  democracy  of 
every  country  in  the  world.  The  full 
measure  of  that  effect  is  not  apparent — 
will  not  be  for  generations — ^but  among 
events  that  have  been  influenced,  to  some 
degree  at  least,  are  the  great  strikes  in 
Germany  and  Austria  in  favour  of  a  demo- 
cratic peace  and  the  formation  of  an  inde- 
pendent Labour  Party  in  England,  with 
so  strong  a  demand  for  a  statement  of 
war  aims  that  Lloyd  George  was  com- 


140        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

pelled  to  heed  it.  About  the  time  Lloyd 
George  spoke.  President  Wilson  gave  to 
the  world  a  statement  of  America's  war 
aims  and  these  were  at  once  taken  up  by 
English  Labour  and  claimed  as  their  own. 
And  as  these  declarations  were  being 
made,  Trotzky,  the  Russian  Foreign  Min- 
ister in  the  Bolsheviki  Government,  pub- 
lished a  book,  *'The  Bolsheviki  and 
World  Peace."  In  it  he  gave  this  for- 
mula for  peace — ^''The  peace  of  the  peoples 
themselves  and  not  the  reconciliation  of 
the  diplomats.  No  contributions.  The 
right  of  every  nation  to  self-determina- 
tion. The  United  States  of  Europe — 
without  monarchies,  without  standing 
armies,  without  ruling  feudal  castes,  with- 
out secret  diplomacy. ' ' 

This  was  written,  evidently,  a  short 
time  before  Lenine  and  Trotzky  came  to 
power  and,  in  substance,  it  was  the  for- 
mula presented  by  the  Russian  delegates 
at  the  council  table  at  Brest-Litovsk, 
although  they  failed  utterly  in  securing 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        141 

its  adoption.  Of  course  the  Allies  have 
the  deep  conviction  that  Russia  in  making 
a  separate  peace  with  Germany  was  guilty 
of  an  act  of  the  basest  treachery.  It  is 
clear  that  it  released  great  armies  for  an- 
other drive  toward  Paris,  and  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  new  drive  for  conquests  in 
Russia.  But  it  released,  also,  great 
armies  erf  radical  ideas  that  have  made  an 
insidious  and  powerful  attack  on  the 
morale  of  the  German  people.  Which 
groups  of  armies,  those  operating  outside 
Germany  or  those  operating  inside,  would 
do  the  greater  destruction  was  not  deter- 
mined when  this  was  written.  But  they 
were  engaged  in  accomplishing  results 
that  were  violently  contradictory. 

And  in  Russia  there  has  been  some  reac- 
tion from  the  radical  influences  that  have 
been  in  full  swing.  To  what  degree  the 
Bolsheviki  have  been  affected  by  more 
moderate  democratic  influences  is  not 
clear  but  it  can  be  safely  believed  that 
they  have  been  much  affected  and  that, 


142        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

ultimately,  either  their  views  will  be  in- 
fluenced from  without,  in  as  large  measure 
as  they  have  themselves  influenced  the 
views  of  other  democracies,  or  the  Bolshe- 
viki  will  be  supplanted  by  those  repre- 
senting more  conservative  ideas.  This 
is  but  stating  the  fact  that  as  a  rule 
human  reactions,  in  time,  establish  an 
equilibrium.  No  gift  of  prophecy,  there- 
fore, is  needed  to  foresee  that  the  world, 
after  the  war,  will  not  go  all  the  way  to 
the  international  socialism  that  is  ac- 
cepted and  proclaimed  by  the  Bolsheviki. 
The  able  report  on  reconstruction  by 
the  subcommittee  of  the  British  Labour 
Party  presents  the  farthest  swing  which 
the  pendulum  of  radical  liberalism  can  be 
expected  to  make.  As  the  proposals  in 
this  report  will  unquestionably  be  advo- 
cated for  adoption  by  an  important  sec- 
tion of  the  British  Parliament — ^it  is  not 
impossible  that  the  next  general  election 
in  England  will  show  that  that  section 
represents  a  majority — ^they  must  claim 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        14S 

at  once  the  serious  attention  of  all  think- 
ing people.  Count  Okuma  is  credited, 
in  this  report,  with  having  expressed  the 
view,  from  his  vantage  point  of  perspec- 
tive in  Japan,  that  the  present  conflict 
would  result  in  the  death  of  European 
civilisation.  '*We  of  the  Labour  Party 
can  so  far  agree  in  this  estimate, ' '  says  the 
report,  *'a»  to  recognise  in  the  present 
world  catastrophe,  if  not  the  death,  in 
Europe,  of  civilisation  itself,  at  any  rate 
the  culmination  and  collapse  of  a  dis- 
tinctive industrial  civilisation,  which  the 
workers  will  not  seek  to  reconstruct.  At 
such  times  of  crisis  it  is  easier  to  slip  into 
ruin  than  to  progress  into  higher  forms  of 
organisation.  That  is  the  problem  as 
it  presents  itself  to  the  Labour  Party. 

*'WTiat  this  war  is  consuming  is  not 
merely  the  security,  the  homes,  the  liveli- 
hood and  the  lives  of  millions  of  innocent 
families,  and  an  enormous  proportion  of  all 
the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  world,  but 
also  the  very  basis  of  the  peculiar  social 


144        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

order  in  which  it  has  arisen.  The  in- 
dividualist system  of  capitalist  produc- 
tion, based  on  the  private  ownership  and 
competitive  administration  of  land  and 
capital,  with  its  reckless  'profiteering' 
and  wage-slavery,  we  shall  do  our  utmost 
to  see  that  it  is  buried  with  the  millions 
whom  it  has  done  to  death.  If  we  in 
Britain  are  to  escape  from  the  decay  of 
civilisation  itself,  which  the  Japanese 
statesman  foresees,  we  must  ensure  that 
what  is  presently  to  be  built  up  is  a  new 
social  order,  based  not  on  fighting  but 
on  fraternity — ^not  on  the  competitive 
struggle  for  the  means  of  bare  life,  but  on 
a  deliberately  planned  co-operation  in  pro- 
duction and  distribution  for  the  benefit 
of  all  who  participate  by  hand  or  by  brain 
— ^not  on  the  utmost  possible  inequality 
of  riches,  but  on  a  systematic  approach 
towards  a  healthy  equality  of  material 
circumstances  for  every  person  born  into 
the  world — not  on  an  enforced  dominion 
over  subject  nations,  subject  races,  sub- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        145 

ject  colonies,  subject  classes,  or  a  subject 
sex,  but,  in  industry  as  well  as  in  govern- 
ment, on  that  equal  freedom,  that  general 
consciousness  of  consent,  and  that  widest 
possible  participation  in  power,  both  eco- 
nomic and  political,  which  is  characteristic 
of  democracy.  We  do  not,  of  course,  pre- 
tend that  it  is  possible  even  after  the 
drastic  clearing  away  that  is  now  going 
on,  to  build  society  anew  in  a  year  or  two 
of  feverish  reconstruction.  What  the 
Labour  Party  intends  to  satisfy  itself  about 
is  that  each  brick  that  it  helps  to  lay  shall 
go  to  erect  the  structure  that  it  intends, 
and  no  other. 

**The  four  pillars  of  the  house  that  we 
propose  to  erect,  resting  upon  the  com- 
mon foundation  of  the  democratic  control 
of  society  in  all  its  activities,  may  be 
termed : 

*  *  (a)  The  Universal  Enforcement  of  the 
National  Minimum  Wage; 

**(b)  The  Democratic  Control  of  In- 
dustry; 


146        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

*'(c)  The  Revolution  in  National  Fi- 
nance ;  and 

' '  (d)  The  Surplus  Wealth  for  the  Com- 
mon Good. ' ' 

After  presenting  arguments  in  favour  of 
these  proposals  the  report  gives  this  un- 
qualified endorsement  to  the  league  of 
nations : 

"We  stand  for  the  immediate  estab- 
lishment, actually  as  a  part  of  the  treaty 
of  peace  with  which  the  present  war  will 
end,  of  a  universal  league  or  society  of 
nations,  a  supernational  authority,  with 
an  international  high  court  to  try  all 
justiciable  issues  between  nations;  an 
international  legislature  to  enact  such 
common  laws  as  can  be  mutually  agreed 
upon,  and  an  international  council  of 
mediation  to  endeavour  to  settle  without 
ultimate  conflict  even  those  disputes 
which  are  not  justiciable.  W^e  would 
have  all  the  nations  of  the  world  most 
solemnly  undertake  and  promise  to  make 
common  cause  against  any  one  of  them 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        147 

that  broke  away  from  this  fundamental 
agreement.  The  world  has  suffered  too 
much  from  war  for  the  Labour  Party  to 
have  any  other  poHcy  than  that  of  last- 
ing peace. ' ' 

This  leaves  the  third  change  that  may 
follow  the  war  to  be  examined.  And 
that  stands  midway  between  the  two  ex- 
tremes of  imperialism  and  radicalism. 
It  can  be  stated,  broadly,  in  this  fashion : 

3.  Representative  democracy  existing  in 
nations  and  serving  as  a  bond  of  union  in  a 
league  of  nations. 

This  is  an  approximately  accurate  de- 
scription of  the  political  principles  of  the 
Entente  Allies  in  the  war.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  Japan,  whose  government  has 
been  steadily  becoming  more  democratic 
since  1868,  each  of  them  has  a  govern- 
ment directly  responsive  and  responsible 
to  the  people.  And  this  fact  has  been  a 
controlling  factor  in  bringing  them  to- 
gether and  in  holding  them  together  in  a 
league.    It   has   made  sharp  and  clear- 


148        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

cut  the  battle  line  between  democracy 
and  autocracy  and  thus  has  determined 
the  decisive  purpose  of  the  war.  Now 
democracy  is  not  socialism.  It  stands  for 
the  individual,  for  his  initiative,  for  his 
rights,  for  his  freedom.  Democracy  is 
the  creed  of  the  Gospel,  for  it  interprets 
the  underlying  and  unescapable  obliga- 
tion in  personal  responsibility.  Germany 
forgot  her  Luther  or  she  could  never  have 
forged  such  a  thunderbolt  as  Prussian 
militarism.  But  the  printing  press  which 
her  Gutenberg  set  up  in  Mainz  has  served 
as  a  mighty  instrument  of  democracy. 
It  made  possible  the  spread  of  knowledge, 
which  has  been  both  the  cause  and  the 
hope  of  modern  civilisation.  The  print- 
ing press  has  been  the  screw  of  Archimedes 
that  everywhere  has  been  lifting  men  into 
a  consciousness  of  their  manhood.  Serf- 
dom has  had  to  go,  slavery  has  had  to  go, 
feudaUsm  has  had  to  go — ^and  democracy, 
based  on  the  rights  of  man,  had  to  come. 
And  in  all  the  centuries  it  has  been  com- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        149 

ing,  slowly,  oh  very  slowly  at  times,  but 
coming,  surely  coming.  It  has  been  com- 
ing in  Germany  through  the  growing  rise 
of  the  people's  power;  in  England,  through 
the  revolution  in  which  the  inherited 
power  of  the  lords  has  been  shattered 
and  the  supreme  power  of  the  people  rec- 
ognised; in  all  modem  Europe  it  has 
been  coming;  in  Turkey,  in  Persia,  in 
China  it  has  been  coming;  in  America  it 
has  been  coming. 

Vested  power  will  entrench  itself  in 
many  strong  positions  in  the  generations 
to  come,  as  it  has  in  the  past,  but  it  must 
lose  them  because  its  fight  is  against  men 
and  women  who  are  being  raised  by  the 
democratic  power  of  the  printing  press 
into  reliant,  strong,  conscious  individual- 
ism. When  the  printing  press  gave  knowl- 
edge to  the  world  it  gave  the  power  to  the 
world  that  was  to  make-  it  democratic. 
Learning  was  no  longer  the  privilege  of  the 
few  but  the  possession  of  the  many.  The 
Bible  was  no  longer  chained  to  cathedral 


150        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

pulpits  but  found  its  way  into  the  hum- 
blest home.  Government  was  no  longer 
vested  in  kings,  and  though  thrones 
might  remain,  they  have  become  merely 
symbols  of  a  power  transferred  in  increas- 
ing measure  to  the  people.  The  world  had 
to  be  democratised. 

The  great  war  itself  has  been  an  agency 
of  democracy.  It  is  unbelievable  that  the 
millions  who  have  fought  it,  on  the  firing 
lines  and  behind  them,  can  be  brought 
under  subjection  to  autocracy.  It  may 
be  believable,  but  it  doesn't  appear  to  be 
probable,  that  they  will  carry  democracy 
to  the  point  of  extreme  radicalism.  In- 
stead, it  is  more  reasonable  to  look  for- 
ward to  a  world  after  the  war  in  which 
democracy  will  be  truly  representative, 
controlling  governments  within  nations 
and  serving  as  a  bond  of  understanding 
and  union  between  nations  in  a  League  to 
Enforce  a  just  and  durable  Peace. 


APPENDIX 

There  are  reprinted  in  the  Appendix 
the  proposals  of  the  League  to  Enforce 
Peace  and  Referendum  Number  Eleven 
and  Referendum  Number  Twenty-three  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  United 
States,  to  all  of  which  frequent  references 
have  been  made. 


PROPOSALS  OF  THE  LEAGUE  TO  ENFORCE 
PEACE 

WE  believe  it  to  be  desirable  for 
the  United  States  to  join  a  league 
of  nations  binding  the  signatories  to  the 
following: 

First:  All  justiciable  questions  arising 
between  the  signatory  powers,  not  settled 
by  negotiation,  shall,  subject  to  the  limi- 
tations of  treaties,  be  submitted  to  a  judi- 
cial tribunal  for  hearing  and  judgment, 
both  upon  the  merits  and  upon  any  issue 
as  to  its  jurisdiction  of  the  question. 

Second:  All  other  questions  arising  be- 
tween the  signatories  and  not  settled  by 
negotiation,  shall  be  submitted  to  a  coun- 
cil of  conciliation  for  hearing,  considera- 
tion and  recommendation. 

Third:  The  signatory  powers  shall 
153 


154        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

jointly  use  forthwith  both  their  economic 
and  mihtary  forces  against  any  one  of 
their  number  that  goes  to  war,  or  commits 
acts  of  hostiUty,  against  another  of  the 
signatories  before  any  question  arising 
shall  be  submitted  as  provided  in  the 
foregomg.* 

Fourth:  Conferences  between  the  sig- 
natory powers  shall  be  held  from  time  to 
time  to  formulate  and  codify  rules  of  inter- 
national law,  which,  unless  some  signa- 
tory shall  signify  its  dissent  within  a 
stated  period,  shall  thereafter  govern  in 
the  decisions  of  the  Judicial  Tribunal 
mentioned  in  Article  One. 

*The  folloicing  interpretation  of  Article  3  has  been  authorised 
by  the  Executive  Committee: 

"The  signatory  powers  shall  jointly  employ  diplomatic  and 
economic  pressure  against  any  one  of  their  number  that 
threatens  war  against  a  fellow  signatory  without  having  first 
submitted  its  dispute  for  international  inquiry,  conciliation, 
arbitration  or  judicial  hearing,  and  awaited  a  conclusion,  or 
without  having  in  good  faith  offered  so  to  submit  it.  They 
shall  follow  this  forthwith  by  the  joint  use  of  their  military 
forces  against  that  nation  if  it  actually  goes  to  war,  or  com- 
mits acts  of  hostility,  against  another  of  the  signatories  before 
any  question  arising  shall  be  dealt  with  as  provided  in  the 
foregoing.'* 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        155 

II 

Referendum  Number  Eleven 
report  of  the  special  committee  on 
results  of  the  war  and  american 
business 

September  2, 1915. 

To  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  of  the  United 
States : 

All  Americans  are  profoundly  moved  by 
the  war,  whether  viewed  from  its  moral  or 
material  aspects.  Especially  is  this  true 
of  American  business  men  who,  through 
their  business  relations,  are  closely  in 
touch  with  the  actual  conditions  in  Eu- 
rope. Moreover,  the  knowledge  that  war 
fundamentally  injures  the  business  struc- 
ture and  the  trained  power  of  the  success- 
ful business  men  to  accomplish  results 
has  created  in  them  the  will  for  more  last- 
ing peace. 


156        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

This  will  is  not  the  creation  of  this  war 
alone.  United  States  business  men  had 
put  such  strength  and  efficiency  into  an 
International  Chamber  of  Commerce 
that,  in  June,  1914,  at  Paris,  the  Inter- 
national Chamber  of  Commerce  voted  to 
submit  a  business  question  of  interna- 
tional interest  to  a  referendum,  thus  be- 
ginning the  movement  to  develop  a  world- 
wide consensus  of  matured  business  opin- 
ion and  to  secure  international  agreement 
and  legislation  on  disputed,  wrongly 
settled,  or  unsettled  commercial  ques- 
tions. As  the  membership  reached  in  this 
interchange  of  views  included  the  repre- 
sentatives of  almost  every  business  men's 
association  in  every  important  commer- 
cial country  in  the  world,  and  as  commerce 
and  markets  underlie  many  of  the  more 
talked  of  ' '  causes  of  the  war, "  it  is  clear 
that  the  business  men  of  the  United 
States  were,  before  the  present  war,  work- 
ing in  the  right  direction  for  more  lasting 
peace. 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        157 

HISTORICAL    STATEMENT 

At  the  last  convention  of  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  of  the  United  States,  in 
Washington,  in  January,  1915,  a  resolution 
was  offered  by  a  delegate — ^the  represent- 
ative of  the  Advertising  Clubs  of  Amer- 
ica— ^urging  that  the  power  of  inter- 
national commerce  and  finance,  applied 
as  economic  pressure,  be  employed  to 
compel  nations  to  bring  their  differences 
before  an  international  tribunal  before 
going  to  war. 

In  1907,  at  the  Hague  International 
Conference,  forty-four  of  the  civilised  na- 
tions of  the  world  agreed  on  the  necessity 
of  an  international  tribunal  to  deal  with 
international  differences. 

In  1912  the  International  Congress  of 
Chambers  of  Commerce,  made  up  of 
delegates  representing  the  principal  organ- 
isations of  business  men  of  all  the  civilised 
countries  of  the  world,  voted  unanimously 
in  favour  of  arbitration  for  the  settlement 
of  international  disputes. 


158        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

In  the  spring  of  1915  your  committee 
was  appointed  by  the  Directors  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  United 
States  to  examine  into  the  relations  be- 
tween the  present  war  and  business  and 
submit  suggestions  as  to  the  future. 

Accordingly  your  committee  has  stud- 
ied the  question  carefully  and  canvassed 
many  of  the  best  minds  in  this  country 
and  in  Europe.  Early  in  June  of  this 
year  a  large  number  of  representative 
business  men  and  leaders  in  professional 
life  met  in  Cleveland  in  a  W^orld's  Court 
Congress.  Some  of  your  committee  at- 
tended this  meeting.  Its  sentiment  was 
unanimous  in  recognition  of  the  need  of 
developing  more  definite  law  in  inter- 
national relations.  To  that  end  it  de- 
clared strongly  in  favour  of  an  interna- 
tional tribunal,  with  the  support  of  inter- 
national police  power. 

On  June  17  your  committee  met  in 
Philadelphia,  concurrently  with  a  meet- 
ing of  distinguished  Americans  in  Inde- 


BLOCKCNG  NEW  WARS        159 

pendence  Hall,  and  participated  as  in- 
dividuals in  the  meetings  of  the  League 
to  Enforce  Peace.  Here  again  the  senti- 
ment was  overwhelming  for  the  suprem- 
acy of  law  in  the  relations  between  na- 
tions, and  the  following  resolutions  were 
adopted : 

First:  All  justiciable  questions  arising 
between  the  signatory  powers,  not  settled 
by  negotiation,  shall,  subject  to  the  limita- 
tions of  treaties,  be  submitted  to  a  judi- 
cial tribunal  for  hearing  and  judgment, 
both  upon  the  merits  and  upon  any  issue 
as  to  its  jurisdiction  of  the  question. 

Second:  All  other  questions  arising  be- 
tween the  signatories  and  not  settled  by 
negotiation  shall  be  submitted  to  a  Coun- 
cil of  Conciliation  for  hearing,  considera- 
tion and  recommendation. 

Third:  The  signatory  powers  shall 
jointly  use  forthwith  both  their  economic 
and  military  forces  against  any  one  of 
their  number  that  goes  to  war,  or  com- 
mits acts  of  hostility,  against  another  of 


160        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

the  signatories  before  any  question  arising 
shall  be  submitted  as  provided  in  the  fore- 
going. 

Fourth:  Conferences  between  the  sig- 
natory powers  shall  be  held  from  time  to 
time  to  formulate  and  codify  rules  of  inter- 
national law,  which,  unless  some  signa- 
tory shall  signify  its  dissent  within  a 
stated  period,  shall  thereafter  govern  in 
the  decisions  of  the  Judicial  Tribunal 
mentioned  in  Article  One. 

From  a  number  of  other  countries  come 
reports  of  similar  meetings  with  similar 
expressions  of  opinions.  Thus  it  became 
evident  to  your  committee  that  the  best 
thought  of  the  world  was  nearing  agree- 
ment on  what  should  be  done  better  to 
safeguard  the  interests  now  subject  to 
injury  by  war.  This  consensus  of  opin- 
ion was  well  expressed  in  a  statement 
issued  from  a  conservative  source  last 
June — one  of  our  largest  and  most  success- 
ful banks — ^which  reads  in  part  as  follows: 

"The  occasion  (of  the  sinking  of  the 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        161 

Lusitania)  illustrates  the  want  of  the 
civilised  world  for  a  duly  constituted 
authority  for  determining  and  defining 
international  law  under  all  the  changing 
conditions  of  modern  life  and  warfare. 
It  may  be  that  it  is  too  much  to  hope 
for,  that  in  this  or  near  generations  war 
can  be  altogether  prevented;  it  may  be 
that  for  a  long  time  to  come  great  racial 
and  national  impulses  will  occasionally 
break  through  all  restraints  that  may  be 
contrived  and  all  agreements  that  in- 
dividuals of  passing  authority  may  formu- 
late and  insist  upon  fighting  out  mat- 
ters of  fundamental  concern.  .  .  .  The 
United  States  has  always  stood,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  principle,  for  the  broadest  possible 
interpretation  of  the  rights  of  neutrals 
and  non-combatants  in  time  of  war.  This 
policy  has  been  determined  upon  the 
theory  that  it  is  in  the  interest  of  civil- 
isation and  for  the  good  of  mankind  that 
the  area  of  war  operations  shall  be  cir- 
cumscribed as  much  as  possible,  and  the 


162        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

rights  of  neutrals  and  non-combatants 
protected  and  enlarged.  In  time  of  peace 
this  principle  must  command  general  ap- 
proval, but  in  time  of  war,  when  nations 
are  fighting,  as  they  believe,  for  their 
existence,  any  change  of  conditions  that 
may  be  held  to  affect  the  application  of 
international  law  is  seized  upon  by  the 
combatants.  The  trouble  then  is  that 
international  law  rests  upon  common  con- 
sent, and  there  is  not  even  a  recognised 
authority  to  say  what  it  is  with  relation 
to  new  conditions  that  arise.  Private 
war,  the  settlement  of  property  disputes 
by  force,  and  of  questions  of  honour  by  the 
duel,  have  been  done  away  with  by  the 
creation  of  a  body  of  law  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  tribunals  to  try  the  causes 
that  may  arise.  There  is  no  humiliation 
or  disgrace  in  submitting  to  the  determi- 
nation of  a  duly  constituted  court,  even 
though  the  defeated  party  feels  that  jus- 
tice in  his  case  has  not  been  done.  The 
essential  thing  is  that  order  shall  be  main- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        163 

tained  and  that  rights  shall  be  determined, 
not  by  the  power  of  force,  but  by  rules 
of  equity  impartially  administered. 

'*In  the  international  field  there  re- 
mains the  risk  that  the  parties  to  a  dis- 
pute, jealous  of  their  rights,  fearful  of 
the  results  of  precedent,  sensitive  as  to 
national  honour,  swayed  by  the  emotions 
or  interests  of  the  hour,  may  take  posi- 
tions from  which  retreat  upon  either  side 
seems  to  be  impossible,  and  so  drift  into 
war,  although  neither  side  desires  it.  The 
civilised  world  is  supremely  interested  in 
the  maintenance  of  order;  the  first  condi- 
tion of  this  is  good  understanding,  and 
nothing  will  contribute  so  much  to  it  as 
an  agreed  method  of  determining  what  is 
right  in  cases  of  dispute  according  to 
principles  accepted  and  defined  so  far  as 
possible  in  time  of  peace. ' ' 

As  business  men,  we  cannot  fail  to  fore- 
see that,  if  this  war  is  settled  as  all  pre- 
vious wars  have  been,  without  providing 
for  the   *'duly  constituted  authority," 


164        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

there  will  be  added  to  its  enormous 
charges  the  still  greater  continuous 
charges  due  to  rivalry  in  armaments  and 
other  preparations  for  the  ''next  settle- 
ment." Under  such  conditions,  we  are 
forced  to  believe  that  the  European  na- 
tions, after  the  war,  will  be  faced  with  the 
insistent  need  for  re-establishing  their  in- 
dustries at  almost  any  sacrifice  in  order 
to  keep  up  in  the  race  for  armaments 
and  to  obtain  means  of  settling  their 
debts  so  as  to  keep  their  credit  good  for 
the  next  war.  Predictions  by  students  of 
affairs  abeady  abound  that  these  necessi- 
ties will  cause  them  to  make  sacrifices  of 
natural  profits,  lower  their  scale  of  living, 
and  so  create  competition  of  unexampled 
severity — ^a  competition  which  also  would 
be  particularly  ominous  for  our  higher- 
wage  market,  that  so  far  has  suffered  least. 

FACTORS   TO   BE   FACED 

Whether  this  reasoning  be  sound  or  not, 
the  certain  factors  that  we  have  to  face 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        165 

in  the  event  of  an  unsatisfactory  settle- 
ment in  Europe  will  be: 

1.  A  reduction  of  purchasing  power  in 
Europe  and  indirect  reduction  thereby  of 
purchasing  power  in  other  countries;  for 
instance,  if  Brazil  cannot  sell  as  much 
cofifee  to  Europe  her  purchasing  power  in 
other  countries  will  be  proportionally 
limited.     <^ 

2.  A  shortage  of  the  world's  available 
capital  due,  (a)  to  sheer  destruction,  (b) 
to  the  great  uncertainty  as  to  the  future, 
(c)  to  the  need  for  settling  certain  of  the 
war  debts,  and  (d)  preparing  for  further 
war — ^the  whole  tending  to  raise  the  price 
of  capital  the  world  over  and  limit  notably 
its  employment  in  the  newer  countries. 

3.  A  decline  in  the  European  standard 
of  living  and  perhaps  of  wages,  rendering 
possible  a  low-priced  production,  which 
will  create  a  costly  world-wide  disturb- 
ance of  industrial  conditions. 

4.  Increasing  hostile  protective  tariffs 
on   the  part  of  the  fighting  countries. 


166        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

due,  first  to  a  desire  to  find  a  source  of 
taxation,  and  secondly  to  the  desire  to 
make  the  country  imposing  it  as  self- 
sufficing  as  possible  in  manufactures  and 
food,  as  a  military  measure. 

Should  a  period  of  unrest  and  uncer- 
tainty follow  an  unsettling  ' '  settlement, ' ' 
the  United  States  will  not  be  free  to  de- 
termine what  increase,  if  any,  she  will 
I  make  in  her  armaments,  but  may  be 
forced  into  an  abnormally  great  increase, 
with  correspondingly  abnormal  tax  and 
/  other  burdens. 

The  possibility  of  a  growing  revolution- 
ary spirit  in  Europe,  due  to  very  seriously 
increased  burdens  on  the  masses,  with 
reactions  on  certain  sections  of  American 
labour,  is  not  to  be  disregarded. 

FIVE  SPECIFIC  PROPOSALS 

In  any  case  it  is  obvious  that  America 
will  be  very  seriously  affected  by  the  char- 
acter of  the  settlement  arrived  at  in  Eu- 
rope.   Your  committee,  therefore,  favours 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        167 

calling  upon  Congress  and  the  President 
to  do  all  in  their  power  to  promote  the 
establismentof: 

1.  A  More  Comprehensive  and  Better^ 
Defined  Sea  Law, 

£.  An  International  Com*t, 

3.  A  Council  of  Conciliation, 

4.  Liternational  Conferences  for  the 
better  .establishment  and  progressive 
amendment  of  international  law. 

5.  The  organisation  of  a  System  of 
Commercial  and  Financial  Non-Inter- 
course to  be  followed  by  military  force  if 
necessary,  to  be  applied  to  those  nations 
entering  into  the  foregoing  arrangements 
and  then  going  to  war  without  first  sub- 
mitting their  differences  to  an  agreed- 
upon  tribunal. 

RECOMMENDATION  ONE 

A  More  Comprehensive  and  Better-Defined 
Sea  Law 
At  best,  sea  law  during  war  has  always 
been  poorly  defined.     Many  of  the  causes 


168        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

of  friction  between  belligerents  and  neu- 
trals have  been  due  not  so  much  to  wilful 
disregard  by  belligerents  of  neutral  rights 
as  to  honest  differences  in  appraising 
them.  The  understandings  of  one  period 
have  become  confused  by  new  inventions, 
new  conditions.  The  international  con- 
ferences which  from  time  to  time  have 
undertaken  more  clearly  to  bring  the  na- 
tions into  agreement  respecting  the  rights 
of  persons  and  property  at  sea  have  met 
irregularly,  and  their  recommendations 
have  had  no  binding  force.  There  is 
need  of  a  legislative  body  to  frame  agree- 
ments on  such  law;  there  is  need  of  just 
interpretation  of  this  sea  law,  which 
means  an  international  court;  and  there 
is  need  of  a  method  of  compelling  respect 
for  the  court's  decision,  which  means  find- 
ing something  better  as  a  way  of  enforc- 
ing international  law  than  taking  sides  in 
a  war  in  which  both  sides  may  be  violat- 
ing the  law.  The  present  war  with  the 
losses  of  lives  and  property  of  Americans 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        169 

has    fundamentally     emphasised     these 
needs. 


RECOMMENDATION   TWO 

An  International  Court 

When  citizens  disagree,  the  state  pro- 
vides courts  to  mete  out  justice.  When 
two  or  more  of  our  states  or  of  citizens 
in  different  states  disagree,  the  United 
States  maintains  courts  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. It  is  no  more  logical  or  right  for 
nations  with  differences  to  resort  at  once 
to  war  than  it  would  be  for  two  men  who 
have  failed  to  settle  a  private  difference 
to  draw  pistols  and  begin  to  shoot. 

The  problem  of  securing  peace  and  jus- 
tice among  nations  is  simply  an  extension 
of  what  we  have  successfully  solved  in  the 
national  and  municipal  realms.  It  is  not 
without  significance  in  this  connection 
that  forty-four  of  the  principal  nations 
of  the  world  had,  seven  years  before  the 
war,  agreed  in  principle  to  the  establish- 


170        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

ment  <rf  a  W'orld's  G)urt  of  Arbitral 
Justice,  diflFering  only  over  details. 
Since  1907,  however,  there  has  been  much 
study  erf  details,  and  with  the  compul- 
skm  of  the  experience  of  this  war  added 
it  is  now  beheved  that  the  difficulties 
they  presented  can  more  readily  be  over- 


RECOMMENDATION  THREE 

A  Council  of  Conciliation 

There  are  questions  that  cannot  be  de- 
cided by  the  strict  rule  of  law.  Among 
nations  questions  of  honour  and  questions 
of  policy  are  usually  reserved  from  arbi- 
tration. We  should  not,  for  example, 
arbitrate  the  Monroe  Doctrine  or  submit 
to  a  court  our  right  to  say  whether  or  not 
we  might  exclude  or  restrict  immigration. 
But  before  nations  shall  fight  over  such 
questions,  bringing  damage  on  all,  it  is 
fair  to  neutrals  that  they  should  be  given 
a  chance  to  ascertain  the  facts  and,  if 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        171 

possible,  help  to  a  peaceful  solution.  The 
delay  incident  to  such  efforts  toward  con- 
ciliation may  serve  as  a  preventive  of 
war. 


RECOMMENDATION  FOUR 

International   Conferences  for   the   Better 
Establishment  and  Progressive  Amend- 
ment of  International  Law 

Along  many  lines  already  world  forces 
have  been  working  for  many  years 
through  international  conferences  to  pro- 
mote a  better  understanding  among  na- 
tions, establish  more  firmly  enlightened 
standards  to  govern  their  inter-relations 
and  furnish  a  body  of  international  law. 

A  number  of  general  conferences  were 
started  by  international  meetings  before 
the  nineteenth  century,  but  more  regular 
meetings  were  organised  since  then.  Those 
conferences  met  at  Vienna  (1815),  Paris 
(1856),  Berlin  (1878  and  1885),  Algeciras 
(1906),  London  (1912).    Successively  m- 


17«        BLOCKING  NT^^  ^^AKS 

tematiniMJ  conferences  na\  e  condemned 
afatvety,  regulated  iia\ngatioii  on  intar* 
national  riv<»s,  sopisressed  privatemiig» 
prodaimed  the  right  of  men  to  their  lan- 
guage and  religion  in  nations  composed 
of  pec^le  of  diff^^^it  natioDalities,  a|^>lied 
the  {H-incipIe  of  opca  door  to  the  Congo 
Basin  and  Morocco,  guaranteed  the  ri^t 
of  badcward  peoples. 

Besides  these  conferences  which  had 
spedfinaQy  a  more  European  character, 
except  those  of  Berlin  (18S5)  and  Alge- 
dras  (1906),  in  whidi  the  United  States  of 
America  also  participwited,  numerous  offi- 
ce oonf«rcaices  with  a  more  technical 
aim  have  been  held  mainly  during  the 
last  fifty  years.  About  sixty  difl[er»it 
matters  ba^e  be«  discussed  by  the  most 
ocHnpetent  men  of  the  world  in  the  most 
varied  domains  of  human  acti\'ity.  Nine* 
teen  permanent  bureaus  and  offices  have 
been  organised  of  which  two  at  least,  the 
International  Postal  Office  at  Berne  and 
the  International  Institute  of  Agriailturc 


BLOCKING  NEW  WABS        178 

at  Rome,  are  supported  by  all  the  civil- 
ised states  of  the  world. 

An  enumeration  of  the  main  questions 
considered  will  show  how  far-reaching  is 
the  work  already  performed.  They  are  in 
part:  publication  of  customs  tariffs,  sugar 
production  and  exportation,  contraband 
of  arms  to  backward  peoples,  importation 
of  alcohol  into  Africa,  slave  trade,  white- 
slave traffic,  preservation  of  animals  Tseal, 
fishes,  birds,  etc.),  suppression  of  opium 
traffic,  propagation  of  phylloxera,  imifi- 
cation  of  weights  and  measures,  railroad 
transportation,  postal,  telegraphic  and 
radiotel^raphic  relations,  protection  of 
submarine  cables,  regulation  of  maritime 
signals  and  roads,  workingmen's  protec- 
tion, exchange  <rf  scientific  and  public 
pubUcations  and  of  artistic  reproductions, 
unification  of  private  and  commercial  leg- 
islation, protection  of  patents  and  trade- 
marks, unification  of  commercial  statis- 
tics, geodetic  and  seismologic  researches, 
exploration  of  the  seas,  pubUcation  erf  the 


174        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

map  of  the  world.  This  movement  to- 
ward international  agreement  and  law 
was  gaining  in  strength  each  year.  Stop- 
ped by  the  war,  there  is  little  doubt  that 
it  will  revive  stronger  and  pursue  its 
course  in  a  more  regular  and  systematic 
way  when  the  war  is  over.  Business  men 
perhaps  more  than  others  should  be  anx- 
ious to  support  such  endeavours  for  a  bet- 
ter understanding  among  nations  estab- 
lishing more  firmly  enlightened  standards 
to  govern  their  inter-relations  and  fur- 
nishing a  more  elaborate  and  organic 
body  of  international  public  and  adminis- 
trative law.  The  present  war  has  again 
incontrovertibly  shown  the  fundamental 
need  for  this.  The  problem  is,  then,  not 
new  or  novel,  but  needs  only  to  be  broad- 
ened and  organised  to  yield  all  the  desired 
benefits. 

RECOMMENDATION  FIVE 

The  organisation  of  a  System  of  Com- 
mercial    and    Financial    Non-Inter- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        175 

course,  to  be  followed  by  military  force 
if  necessary,  to  be  applied  to  those  na- 
tions entering  into  the  foregoing  ar- 
rangements and  then  going  to  war  with- 
out first  submitting  their  differences  to 

an  agreed  upon  tribunal. 
There  is  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
employment  of  force  to  compel  any  signa- 
tory nation  to  submit  its  cause  to  an  inter- 
national tribunal  before  going  to  war. 
Your  committee,  however,  believes  that 
the  great  majority  of  the  practical  men 
of  the  United  States  who  hold  themselves 
responsible  for  reasonable  progress  see  the 
necessity  of  the  employment  of  an  ade- 
quate pressure  or  force  to  compel  signa- 
tory nations  to  bring  their  cause  before 
an  International  Court  or  Council  of 
Conciliation  before  going  to  war;  because, 
however  desirable  it  may  be  theoretically 
not  to  use  force,  yet  the  history  of  the 
last  one  hundred  years,  the  many  wars 
during  that  time  and  the  events  of  the 
present   war   have   made   apparent   the 


176        BLOCKGSTG  NEW  WARS 

fundamental  need  of  an  international 
power  to  enforce  the  submission  of  inter- 
national disputes  to  a  court.  The  alter- 
native is  constantly  recurring  wars  and, 
in  the  interval  between  these  wars,  the 
increasing  absorption  in  preparations  for 
war  of  the  resources  of  the  principal  na- 
tions of  the  world. 

Your  committee  does  not  suggest  that 
the  world  can  do  without  armies.  We  do 
not  think  that  it  can,  at  the  present  stage 
of  civilisation,  any  more  than  we  can  do 
without  a  militia.  But  just  as,  within 
the  state,  there  are  many  things  we  use, 
besides  the  militia  and  before  we  use  the 
state  militia  or  call  upon  Federal  troops 
for  the  enforcement  of  a  law  or  the  execu- 
tion of  a  court's  judgment,  so  there  are 
forces  we  can  use  internationally  before 
we  employ  our  armies  and  navies. 

These  forces  can  be  summarised  in  the 
term  economic  pressure,  by  which  we 
mean  the  commercial  and  financial  boy- 
cott of  any  nation  that  goes  to  war  with- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        177 

out  submitting  its  dispute  to  judgment  or 
inquiry.  Our  plea  is  that  in  the  first 
instance  the  use  of  economic  force  is 
clearly  indicated,  and  that  military  force 
should  be  resorted  to  only  if  economic 
pressure  prove  ineffective. 

In  considering  such  a  use  of  economic 
pressure,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that 
it  already,  comes  to  pass  automatically 
within  a  more  limited  area  when  nations 
go  to  war.  Warring  nations  promptly 
boycott  each  other.  This  is  important  to 
keep  in  mind  because  confusion  on  this 
point  sometimes  prompts  the  argument 
that  **  non-intercourse  would  be  a  more 
expensive  weapon  than  war,"  as  though 
the  fact  of  going  to  war  in  some  way 
avoided  non-intercourse.  What  your 
committee  really  means  by  its  recommen- 
dation is  that,  in  the  future,  arrangements 
for  international  enforcement  of  the  eco- 
nomic boycott  should  be  organised  on  a 
world-wide  scale,  and  that  in  these  world- 
wide arrangements  nations  better  fitted 


178        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

to  co-operate  with  economic  than  with 
military  power  could  also  have  a  part  in 
the  application  of  the  pressure  needed  to 
preserve  the  world's  prosperity  and  prog- 
ress. 

The  boycott  could  be  of  progressive 
severity.  In  the  first,  and  what  would 
probably  usually  be  the  eflPective  stage, 
the  signatory  nations  would  refuse  to  buy 
from  or  sell  to  the  offending  nation.  If 
the  offenses,  however,  were  aggravated 
and  persistent,  all  intercourse  could  be 
suspended,  and  if  that  proved  insufficient, 
then,  as  the  last  step,  recourse  could  be 
taken  to  military  force. 

It  is  the  deterrent  effect  of  organised 
non-intercourse  which  would  make  war 
less  likely,  since  it  would  be  a  terrible 
penalty  to  incur  and  one  more  difficult  in 
a  sense  to  fight  against  than  military 
measures.  Further,  its  systematic  organ- 
isation would  tend  to  make  any  subse- 
quent military  action  by  the  co-operating 
nations  more  effective. 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        179 

Many  states  that,  for  various  reasons, 
might  not  be  able  to  co-operate  with  mili- 
tary force  could  co-operate  by  their  eco- 
nomic force,  and  so  render  the  action 
against  the  offending  state  more  effective, 
and  that,  in  the  end,  would  be  more  hu- 
mane. 

It  is  argued  that  this  plan  is  a  two-edged 
weapon Jikely  to  injure  ourselves  as  much 
as  the  nation  at  which  it  is  aimed.  In 
other  words,  it  is  costly,  but  is  not  all 
punishment  costly  .^^  War,  too,  is  costly, 
and  self -injurious  to  the  nation  which 
essays  it.  Is  not  the  whole  system  of 
peace  within  the  state  based  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  we  are  prepared  to  pay  for  the 
prevention  of  law-breaking.^  In  a  choice 
of  costs,  the  policy  of  wisdom  is  to  choose 
that  which,  for  the  least  outlay,  promises 
the  greatest  return.  Our  proposition  im- 
plies that  the  coercing  members  shall  out- 
weigh the  members  to  be  coerced.  In 
that  case  the  cost  would  be  distributed 
and  the  mutual  markets  conserved.    And 


180        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

if  the  war  would  finally  prove  inevitable, 
the  expense  of  the  boycott  could  be  re- 
garded merely  as  a  part  of  its  necessary 
preparation,  by  shortening  the  strictly 
military  stage  just  so  much. 

It  may  be  contended  that  it  would  be 
to  locate  the  responsibility  of  an  oflfend- 
ing  nation  soon  and  clearly  enough  to 
insure  a  just  and  probably  effective  use 
of  economic  pressure  before  war  had  be- 
gun. But  in  dealing  with  individuals  the 
police  power  leaves  decisions  to  the  court. 
Nations  submitting  their  differences  to  an 
established  tribunal  for  conciliation  or 
judgment  before  going  to  war  would  not 
come  under  the  proposed  plan  of  pressure. 
It  would  apply  automatically  to  all  other 
signatory  nations. 

To  the  contention  that  the  plan  would 
bear  with  undue  hardship  upon  indi- 
viduals of  special  trades  and  industries, 
it  may  be  replied  that  so  does  war.  Your 
committee  thinks  it  would  be  easier  to 
prevent  that  special  distress  during  non- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        181 

intercourse  than  in  the  event  of  war. 
The  experience  of  the  combatants  of  this 
war  is  particularly  enlightening  on  this 
point.  On  the  morrow  of  the  declaration 
of  war,  many  credit  institutions  in  Eng- 
land (the  same  thing  was  true  of  Ger- 
many) found  themselves  threatened  with 
what  would  have  been,  in  the  absence  of 
special-  measures,  absolute  ruin.  But 
special  measures  were  taken,  and  the 
government  successfully  used  its  power  to 
prevent  all  the  effects  of  the  war  falling 
upon  any  one  class  of  the  community. 

The  objection  that  past  embargoes  were 
ineffective,  notably  the  Berlin  and  Milan 
decrees  of  the  Napoleonic  wars,  over- 
looks the  immense  difference  in  the  char- 
acter and  importance  of  international  in- 
tercourse in  those  times  and  now.  If,  a 
hundred  years  ago,  a  capital  were  isolated 
for  weeks,  business  elsewhere  went  on 
either  unaware  or  almost  unconcerned, 
but  the  sudden  isolation  of  the  capitals  of 
Europe  in  August,  1914,  compelled  prac- 


182        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

tically  every  government  in  the  world  in- 
stantly to  take  extraordinary  measures  to 
reorganise  its  whole  commercial  and  finan- 
cial life.  The  swiftness  and  intricacy  of 
modern  interrelations  give  to  their  inter- 
ruption a  drastic  and  far-reaching  eflfect 
formerly  unknown. 

Had  such  a  plan  to  put  compulsion 
automatically  into  effect  been  in  existence 
during  the  tense  weeks  just  prior  to  last 
summer's  declarations  of  war,  your' com- 
mittee believes  delay  might  have  been 
secured  for  a  conference,  and  the  war  per- 
haps averted. 

If  military  force  is  to  be  used  between 
nations,  it  is  incomparably  preferable  that 
it  shall  be  used  for  the  enforcement  of 
recognised  international  law,  which  ulti- 
mately would,  by  this  means,  replace  war. 

Your  committee  has  studied  sympa- 
thetically the  arguments  of  those  who 
on  principle  oppose  all  force,  even  to  en- 
force law  instead  of  war;  likewise  the 
argument  of  those  who  respect  the  tradi- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        183 

tion  that  the  United  States  should  ''keep 
free  of  entangHng  aUiances. ' '  It  must  be 
conceded  that  the  latter  describes  a  past 
policy  under  which  our  nation  has  grown 
in  prosperity  and  happiness.  But  your 
committee  is  forced  to  see  that  our  coun- 
try is  already  directly  involved  in  the 
present  war,  because  the  lives  and  pros- 
perity of  American  citizens  have  been 
involved,  and  because  the  future  peace 
and  prosperity  of  our  country  will  be  in- 
volved in  the  settlement  of  the  war. 

Your  committee  believes  that  American 
citizens,  realising  the  world's  imperative 
need  of  the  substitution  of  law  for  war,  if 
militarism  is  not  to  dominate,  are  ready, 
nay,  fael  it  the  clear  call  of  duty,  to  take 
their  share  of  the  work  and  responsibility 
necessary  to  establish  this  substitution. 
We  cannot  escape  if  we  would.  We  would 
not  if  we  could.  The  call  of  women  and 
children,  of  the  helpless  and  the  weak, 
suffering  indescribably  from  needless  war, 
is  an  irresistible  compulsion  to  all  Amer- 


184        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

icans,  and  not  least  to  American  business 
men. 

Knowing  that  civilisation  is  made  up  of 
the  work  and  suffering  and  martyrdoms 
of  the  past,  we  are  willing,  yes,  anxious, 
to  '  *pay  back ' '  in  kind,  if  necessary,  what 
we  are  enjoying,  if  thereby  we  can  help 
on  this  greatest  forward  step  of  civilisa- 
tion— ^the  substitution  of  law  for  war. 

OPPORTUNITY  FOR  UNITED  STATES  TO 
INFLUENCE  SETTLEMENT 

Your  committee  believes  that  the  time 
is  ripe  as  never  before  for  the  fundamental 
advance  in  civilisation  that  the  establish- 
ing of  an  International  Court  and  Council 
represents.  We  know  that  the  hope  and 
the  best  and  sanest  thiuking  of  the  world 
have  been  in  that  direction.  It  is  the 
inevitable  road  forward  as  shown  by  the 
agreement  of  forty-four  nations.  But 
never  before  has  the  will  for  it  been  made 
so  powerful  as  it  has  been  made  by  the 
present  war.   Not  only  in  the  neutral  na- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        185 

tions,  but  also  in  some  of  the  fighting 
nations,  the  will  for  more  permanent 
peace  after  this  war  has  been  greatly 
strengthened.  The  most  important  of  the 
fighting  nations  are  reiterating  that  they 
are  fighting  for  it  as  a  chief  purpose. 

Moreover,  even  the  selfish  interests  of 
the  fighting  nations  will  compel  them,  at 
the  close  of  the  war,  to  favour  the  greatest 
practical  substitution  of  law  for  war  by 
the  creation  of  international  tribunals. 
For  the  alternative  will  be  the  constant 
danger  that  existing  alliances  may  be 
undermined  even  by  differences  over  the 
terms  of  settlement  themselves  with  re- 
sults similar  to  those  that  caused  the  sec- 
ond Balkan  war,  or  undermined  by  con- 
flicting national  interests  and  purposes  in 
the  years  succeeding  the  war.  The  time 
must  inevitably  come  when  the  world 
will  provide  some  better  method  than 
war  for  dealing  with  the  questions  that 
arise  between  nations.  Your  committee 
believe  that  it  is  practically  possible  that 


186        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

the  time  has  arrived,  if  the  United  States 
will  but  do  its  share  of  the  work.  There 
is  little  real  hope  for  success  if  the  United 
States  is  not  a  part  of  it.  For  it  is  being 
demonstrated  by  this  war  that  success 
in  modern  war  depends  largely  on  ade- 
quate supplies  of  ammunition  and  other 
war  materials.  Of  these,  the  United 
States  is  capable  of  the  largest  and  least 
interrupted  production.  If,  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  there  exists  the  legalised  pur- 
pose of  the  United  States  to  join  in  the 
work  needed  to  enforce  peace,  there  will 
be  a  most  practical  reason  to  expect  suc- 
cess for  this  so  necessary  step  forward.  In 
fact  the  beginning  of  the  necessary  organ- 
isation may  be  in  existence  at  that  time 
by  reason  of  agreements  between  the 
United  States  and  some  of  the  neutral 
nations  of  South  America  and  Europe. 
It  is  a  great  opportunity,  perhaps  the 
greatest  that  has  ever  come  to  any  na- 
tion. It  is  a  great  adventure,  practically 
within  our  power  to  promote — an  enter- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        187 

prise  that  appeals  to  all  that  is  best  in 
us — an  opportunity  we  will  not  miss. 

Edward  A.  Filene,  Chairman. 
P.  H.  Gadsden, 
Edward  Hidden, 
Herbert  S.  Houston, 
H.  A.  Meldrum, 
George  E.  Roberts, 

Paul  H.  Saunders. 

■  ■'    ^ 

Arguments  Against  Certain  Committee 
Recommendations 

October  20,  1915. 
To  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  of  the  United  States : 

In  obedience  to  the  resolution  of  your 
Board,  by  which  the  report  of  the  Special 
Committee  on  Economic  Results  of  the 
War  and  American  Business  was  ordered 
submitted  to  a  referendum  vote,  to  be 
accompanied  with  arguments  against 
recommendations  involved,  and  by  which 
the  undersigned  were  appointed  a  com- 


188        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

mittee  of  your  Board  with  power  to  ap- 
prove the  report  and  arguments  for  such 
submission,  we  now  have  the  honour  to 
submit  the  following: 

First,  The  Special  Committee's  report 
itself  contains  the  arguments  in  favour  of 
the  recommendations,  and  we  have 
thought  it  unwise  to  attempt  to  add  any- 
thing further. 

Second,  Some  considerations  in  opposi- 
tion which  may  be  deserving  of  attention 
are  contained  in  the  following  statement: 

(a)  It  is  assumed  that  the  first  four 
proposals  of  the  Committee  are  directed 
to  conditions  so  well  understood,  and  that 
the  agreement  about  the  answers  to  them 
is  so  nearly  universal,  as  to  render  unneces- 
sary any  attempt  to  formulate  objec- 
tions to  them. 

(b)  Doubt  will  probably  arise  with  re- 
spect to  the  fifth  proposal,  which  involves 
the  adoption  of  a  new  principle,  and  which, 
however  moderate  in  its  immediate  form, 
may  be  regarded  as  a  departure  from  ac- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS         189 

cepted  rules  of  conduct  in  international 
law. 

In  connection  with  this  last  proposal, 
the  following  objections  may  be  deserving 
of  attention: 

1.  Doubt  is  entertained  as  to  the  wis- 
dom of  having  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
of  the  United  States  take  any  action  upon 
this  question  at  this  time.  While  this 
question  is  now  the  subject  of  quite  gen- 
eral discussion  in  this  country,  it  does  not 
follow  that  in  view  of  prevailing  condi- 
tions it  is  advisable  to  take  action  with 
respect  to  it. 

2.  Opponents  to  the  employment  of 
force  under  any  and  all  circumstances  will 
need  no  suggestions.  The  recommenda- 
tion simply  invites  the  application  of  a 
general  principle  to  a  particular  situation. 

3.  Altogether  different  is  the  attitude  of 
those  of  our  citizens  who  adhere  to  the 
traditional  policy  that  we  should  avoid 
foreign  entanglements,  who  look  with  dis- 
favour upon  any  unnecessary  enlargement 


190        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

of  our  army  and  navy,  and  who  feel  that 
we  could  not  recommend  to  other  nations 
what  we  hesitate,  or  are  unwilling,  to 
undertake  ourselves. 

An  affirmative  answer  to  this  proposal 
necessarily  involves  a  readiness  on  our 
part  to  assume  the  full  responsibility  of 
active  participation  with  economic  and 
military  force  in  compelling  submission  of 
questions.  Inasmuch  as  a  league  without 
the  membership  of  at  least  several  of  the 
other  first-class  nations  can  hardly  be  con- 
templated, an  affirmative  answer  would 
mean  a  state  of  constant  preparedness  for 
military  action  in  foreign  countries,  which 
has  so  far  been  unknown  in  our  country. 

4.  The  proposed  agreement  to  resort 
to  commercial  and  financial  non-inter- 
course with  an  ofifending  nation  is  subject 
to  a  peculiar  difficulty.  In  an  undertak- 
ing to  employ  military  force,  it  may  be 
assumed  that  an  approximate  apportion- 
ment of  responsibility  betw^een  the  several 
members  of  a  league  may  be  provided  for. 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        191 

Even  here  the  difficulties  may  be  great 
when  it  comes  to  consider  questions  of 
command,  and,  more  particularly,  to  de- 
termine the  elements  of  cost  and  effec- 
tiveness, owing  to  varying  geographical 
conditions  and  different  branches  of  serv- 
ice represented  by  armies  and  navies. 

No  such  basis  for  apportionment  is  to 
be  found  when  it  comes  to  the  employ- 
ment of  economic  force  expressed  in  com- 
mercial non-intercourse.  When  such  a 
measure  is  employed,  it  is  not  inconceiv- 
able that  a  single  nation  may  be  compelled 
to  bear  substantially  the  entire  cost  of  the 
undertaking.  And  it  is  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  chance  that  the  commercial  rela- 
tions between  the  several  members  of  a 
league  and  the  offending  nation  would  be 
such  as  to  furnish  the  basis  for  their  pro- 
portionate contribution  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  their  order.  In  other  words, 
every  nation — ^party  to  such  a  league — 
would  have  to  be  prepared  to  risk,  or 
sacrifice  for  the  time,  its  entire  trade  with 


192        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

an  oflfending  nation,  even  though  other 
members  of  the  league  suffered  no  corre- 
sponding loss. 

This  very  inequality  invites  considera- 
tion of  self-interest  and  consequent  an- 
tagonisms, which  it  is  impossible  to  antic- 
ipate beyond  mere  suggestion. 

5.  Finally,  the  recommendation  as- 
sumes the  possibility  of  having  the  deci- 
sions and  conduct  of  such  a  league  regu- 
lated by  equitable  rules,  impartially  and 
disinterestedly  carried  out.  It  is  true 
that  the  proposal  contemplates  nothing 
more  than  the  insistence  that  every  mem- 
ber of  the  league  before  going  to  war  shall 
submit  its  questions  to  a  council  for  hear- 
ing, consideration  and  recommendation. 
In  its  purpose  the  recommendation  is  ex- 
tremely moderate.     Will  it  rest  there  .'^ 

Power  to  coerce  by  economic  or  military 
force  once  created  is  apt  to  be  employed. 
The  proposed  league  is  almost  sure  to 
have  within  itself  the  elements  of  separate 
combinations  based  upon  distinct  inter- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        193 

ests  and  aims.  The  opportunities  for  the 
exercise  of  such  power  are  innumerable. 
They  may  find  occasion  in  the  circum- 
stances under  which  controversies  be- 
tween nations  arise  or  are  induced,  in  the 
manner  in  which  disputes  are  submitted 
and  determined,  and,  above  all,  in  the 
effect  that  will  be  given  by  a  majority 
of  a  league  to  a  council's  recommenda- 
tion, however  arrived  at.  It  is  not  clear 
that  a  powerful  league  would  rest  con- 
tent with  the  moral  influence  of  the  pro- 
posed council's  advice. 

In  other  words,  the  question  is  whether 
the  proposed  employment  of  force  for 
peace  is  not  more  apt  to  increase  than  to 
decrease  disorder — ^not  unlike  so  many 
of  our  more  modern  legislative  enact- 
ments. 

Joseph  H.  Defrees,  Chairman. 
Howell  Cheney, 
John  Joy  Edson, 
Charles  Nagel, 
R.  G.  Rhett. 


Referendum  Number  Eleven 

ECONOMIC  results  OF  THE  WAR  AND 
AMERICAN  BUSINESS 


n 


Early  in  1915  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Chamber  authorised  the  President 
to  appoint  a  special  Committee  to  prepare 
a  report  on  the  economic  results  of  the 
war  and  American  business.  Such  a 
Committee  was  at  once  named  and  after 
careful  study  and  investigation  submitted 
a  report  which,  pursuant  to  direction 
from  the  Board  of  Directors,  was  sub- 
mitted to  referendum  on  November  15, 
1915. 

Six  recommendations  were  placed  be- 
fore the  membership  of  the  Chamber. 
Under  the  By-laws  the  vote  closed  at 
midnight  on  December  30, 1915,  when  282 
organisations  had  filed  ballots.  These 
194 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS         195 

organisations  are  situated  in  40  states, 
the  District  of  Columbia  and  Hawaii. 
The  American  Chambers  of  Commerce 
in  BerHn  and  Milan  were  among  those 
which  voted. 

In  the  balloting  each  organisation 
casts  as  many  votes  as  it  may  have  dele- 
gates at  an  annual  meeting  of  the  Cham- 
ber. The  number  of  delegates  an  organ- 
isation may  have  depends  upon  the  num- 
ber of  its  members,  but  in  no  case  falls 
below  one  or  exceeds  ten. 

The  recommendations  of  the  Commit- 
tee and  the  results  of  the  balloting  on  each 
recommendation  were  as  follows: 

I.  The  Committee  recommended  ac- 
tion to  secure  conferences  among  neutral 
countries,  on  the  initiative  of  the  United 
States,  for  the  purpose  of  defining  and 
enunciating  rules  which  will  at  all  times 
give  due  protection  to  life  and  property 
upon  the  high  seas. 

763  votes  in  favour,  29  votes  opposed 


196        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

II.  The  Committee  recommended  that 
for  the  decision  of  questions  which  arise 
between  nations  and  which  can  be  re- 
solved upon  the  appHcation  of  established 
rules  or  upon  a  determination  of  facts  the 
United  States  should  take  the  initiative  in 
joining  with  other  nations  in  establishing 
an  International  Court. 

7  58  votes  in  favour ,  21  votes  opposed 

III.  The  Committee  recommended  that 
for  consideration  of  questions  which  arise 
between  nations  and  which  do  not  depend 
upon  established  rules  or  upon  facts  which 
can  be  determined  by  an  International 
Court  the  United  States  should  take  the 
initiative  in  joining  with  other  nations 
in  establishing  a  Council  of  Conciliation. 

74-4  votes  in  favour^  28  votes  opposed 

IV.  The  Committee  recommended  that 
the  United  States  should  take  the  initia- 
tive in  joining  with  other  nations  in  agree- 
ing to  bring  concerted  economic  pressure 
to  bear  upon  any  nation  or  nations  which 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        197 

resort  to  military  measures  without  sub- 
mitting their  differences  to  an  Interna- 
tional Court  or  a  Council  of  Conciliation, 
and  awaiting  the  decision  of  the  Court  or 
the  recommendation  of  the  Council,  as 
circumstances  make  the  more  appropriate. 
556  votes  in  favour,  157  votes  opposed 

V.  The  Committee  recommended  that 
the  United  States  take  the  initiative  in 
joining  with  other  nations  in  agreeing 
to  use  concerted  military  force  in  the 
event  that  concerted  economic  pressure 
exercised  by  the  signatory  nations  is  not 
sufficient  to  compel  nations  which  have 
proceeded  to  war  to  desist  from  military 
operations  and  submit  the  questions  at 
issue  to  an  International  Court  or  a  Coun- 
cil of  Conciliation,  as  circumstances  make 
the  more  appropriate. 

Jlf52  votes  in  favour,  2It9  votes  opposed 

VI.  The  Committee  recommended  that 
the  United  States  should  take  the  initia- 
tive in  establishing  the  principle  of  fre- 


198        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

quent   international   conferences   at   ex- 
pressly stated  intervals  for  the  progressive 
amendment  of  international  law. 
768  votes  in  favour,  13  votes  opposed 

The  attitude  of  the  Chamber,  under  the 
provisions  of  the  By-laws,  can  be  j&xed 
only  by  two-thirds  of  the  votes  cast,  con- 
sequently Referendum  No.  11  has  defined 
the  attitude  of  the  Chamber  in  favor  of  all 
the  recommendations  of  the  Committee 
except  Number  5,  on  the  use  of  military 
force  in  the  event  that  concerted  eco- 
nomic pressure  should  not  be  suflficient. 
Less  than  two-thirds  of  the  total  number 
of  votes  cast  were  in  favour  of  this  recom- 
mendation. 


m 

Referendum  Number  Twenty-three 

on  a  proposal  to  discriminate  against 

germany  in  trade  after  the  war 

if  necessary  for  self-defence 

statement  of  question 

In  accordance  with  Article  X  of  the 
By-laws  of  the  Chamber,  the  Boston 
Chamber  of  Commerce  of  Boston,  Mass., 
has  presented  for  the  consideration  of 
the  National  Chamber  through  refer- 
endum vote  of  its  members  the  question 
of  preventing  excessive  rearmament  after 
the  war  through  discrimination  against 
Germany  in  export  trade  if  necessary 
to  self-defence.  The  question  is  pre- 
sented in  the  form  of  preambles  and 
resolution  reading  as  follows : 
199 


200       BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

Whereas,  The  size  of  Germany's  pres- 
ent armament  and  her  militaristic  atti- 
tude have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  her 
government  is  a  miUtary  autocracy,  not 
responsible  to  the  German  people;  and 

Whereas,  The  size  of  the  German  ar- 
mament after  the  war  will  be  the  measure 
of  the  greatness  of  the  armament  forced 
on  all  nations;  and 

Whereas,  Careful  analysis  of  economic 
conditions  shows  that  the  size  of  Ger- 
many's future  armament  will  fundamen- 
tally depend  on  her  after- war  receipts  of 
raw  materials  and  profits  from  her  for- 
eign trade;  and 

W^hereas,  In  our  opinion  the  American 
people  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  an 
excessive  armament  will  assuredly  enter 
an  economic  combination  against  Ger- 
many if  governmental  conditions  in  Ger- 
many make  it  necessary  for  self-defence; 
and 

W^hereas,  We  believe  the  American 
people   will    not   join    in    discrimination 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS       201 

against  German  goods  after  the  war  if 
the  danger  of  excessive  armament  has 
been  removed  by  the  fact  that  the  Ger- 
man Government  has  in  reahty  become  a 
responsible  instrument  controlled  by  the 
German  people;  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce of  the  United  States  of  America 
earnestly  calls  the  attention  of  the  busi- 
ness men  of  Germany  to  these  conditions 
and  urges  them  also  to  study  this  situa- 
tion and  to  co-operate  to  the  end  that  a 
disastrous  economic  war  may  be  averted 
and  that  a  lasting  peace  may  be  made 
more  certain. 

The  Board  of  Directors,  meeting  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  November  15,  1917, 
held  the  question  to  be  one  of  national 
character  and  importance.  The  Boston 
Chamber  was,  therefore,  requested  to 
prepare  the  statement  which  an  organisa- 
tion member  proposing  a  question  for 
referendum  vote  is  entitled  to  submit. 

This  statement,  entitled  *' Affirmative 


202       BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

Outline  Presented  by  the  Boston  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce,"  is  printed  in  the  pam- 
phlet issued  by  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce of  the  United  States,  and  is  fol- 
lowed by  an  Appendix  containing  ex- 
cerpts from  the  President's  Address  to 
Congress,  December  4,  1917. 

Affirmative  Outline 
presented  by 

THE  BOSTON  CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE 

The  business  men  of  the  United  States 
know  that,  should  the  war  end  leaving  the 
present  form  of  government  in  Germany, 
a  large  part  of  every  dollar  given  in  trade 
to  Germany  after  the  war  would  be  used 
again  by  the  government  to  further  im- 
perial and  military  ends,  just  as  the  Ger- 
man prosperity  of  the  past  has  been  used 
in  preparation  for  the  present  war. 

Germany's  ability  to  maintain  and  in- 
crease her  armaments  after  the  war  will 
depend  upon  her  success  in  getting  raw 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS       20S 

materials  and  in  re-establishing  her  for- 
eign trade.  Extensive  armament  on  the 
part  of  Germany  would  force  the  rest  of 
the  world  into  the  most  burdensome 
period  of  war  preparation  known  in  his- 
tory. The  United  States,  in  common  with 
other  nations,  could  not  afford  to  do  any- 
thing which  would  advance  Germany's 
commercial  success  so  long  as  a  military 
autocracy  had  the  power  to  turn  that 
business  success  into  a  weapon  against 
them. 

If  the  German  Government  remains 
autocratic,  self-preservation  will  force  the 
business  men  of  the  world  to  discriminate 
against  German  business.  It  cannot  be 
otherwise,  unless  they  are  to  be  content 
to  see  the  whole  fruits  of  industry  and 
toil  absorbed  by  the  maintenance  of  arma- 
ments. We  are  convinced  that  the  facts 
of  the  situation  prove  this  proposal  to  be 
not  only  a  sound,  but  an  inevitable  policy 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States. 


«0I       BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

WHY   SUCH   PRONOUNCEMENT  AS   IS   CON- 
TAINED    IN     THE     RESOLUTION     WILL 
HAVE  EFFECT^  IN  GERMANY 

There  is  direct  evidence  that  the  busi- 
ness men  of  Germany  are  today  thinking 
of  this  war  not  only  in  terms  of  present 
mihtary  results,  but  in  terms  of  future 
business  success  as  well.  Recent  dis- 
patches, and  information  from  other 
sources,  indicate  that  increasing  attention 
is  being  paid  by  the  German  newspapers 
to  the  growing  difficulties  of  re-establish- 
ing German  foreign  trade  after  the  war. 
Evidence  is  increasing  that  German  busi- 
ness men  are  regarding  with  apprehension 
the  possibility  that  German  goods  will 
find  no  market  after  the  war  in  the  ports 
of  her  present  enemies.  They  know  that 
no  treaty  provisions  can  give  Germany 
the  willing  custom  of  free  men,  without 
which  there  can  be  no  commercial  suc- 
cess. If  a  statement  of  future  business 
policy  towards  Germany  can  be  made, 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        205 

showing  that  the  one  thing  that  will  go 
farthest  toward  consolidating  the  rest 
of  the  world  in  business  opposition  to 
Germany  after  the  war  will  be  distrust 
of  any  military  autocracy,  one  of  the  most 
powerful  arguments  will  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  German  business  men  to  join  in 
the  demand  for  a  greater  share  in  the 
control  of  their  government. 

The  United  States  is  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  markets  to  which  Germany  can 
look  after  the  war.  German  business 
men  know  that  there  will  have  been  gene- 
rated so  much  hatred  and  distrust  in 
England,  France,  and  the  nearby  enemy 
countries,  that  her  trade  with  them  will 
be  difficult  for  some  time  to  come,  what- 
ever the  settlement  of  the  war  may  be. 
But  they  may  be  thinking  that  our  dis- 
tance from  the  war  zone,  and  our  late 
entrance  into  the  war,  will  mean  a  less 
intense  feeling  on  our  part.  For  this 
reason  they  are  looking  with  greater  hope 
toward   re-establishing   commercial  rela- 


206       BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

tions  with  us.  If,  therefore,  American 
business,  in  an  authoritative  way,  makes 
it  clear  that  America,  also,  will  be  com- 
pelled to  join  in  business  opposition  to 
an  autocratic  Germany,  and  if  American 
business  makes  it  equally  clear  that 
America  will  not  wage  a  business  war 
against  a  Germany  whose  government  is 
responsible  to  the  people,  German  busi- 
ness men  will  have  a  strong  motive  for 
urging  a  democratisation  of  the  German 
Government,  as  the  only  road  to  a  success- 
ful commercial  future. 

HOW  SUCH  A  POLICY  DIFFERS  FROM  A  POL- 
ICY OF  REVENGE 

This  proposal  must  not  be  confused 
with  the  numerous  suggestions  that  have 
been  made  for  an  economic  combination 
against  Germany  as  a  policy  of  revenge. 
If  the  nations  allied  against  Germany 
say  flatly  and  without  qualification  that 
after  the  war  they  are  going  to  unite  to 
prevent  Germany  from  securing  raw  ma- 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        207 

terials  and  to  hamper  her  trade,  the  log- 
ical results  will  be  a  stiffening  of  the  Ger- 
man war  spirit,  and  an  increasing  convic- 
tion among  Germans  that,  for  them,  this 
is  a  war  of  defense. 

The  distinctive  feature  in  the  proposal 
of  this  referendum  is  a  recognition  that, 
under  normal  circumstances,  business 
boycotts  and  other  artificial  interference 
with  economic  laws  are  unsound  and  in 
the  long  run  unprofitable  to  all  concerned; 
and  a  recognition  that,  if  the  German 
Government  is  made  responsible  to  the 
German  people,  the  rest  of  the  world  can 
be  measurably  sure  that  German  pros- 
perity will  not  be  used  by  German  mili- 
tary ambition.  Sound  business  consider- 
ation will  then  dictate  a  determined  oppo- 
sition to  an  economic  war  against  Ger- 
many purely  as  a  matter  of  revenge. 

This  proposal  is  concerned  only  in  mak- 
ing clear  to  the  business  men  of  Germany 
that  a  continuance  of  the  present  Ger- 
man military  autocracy  will  compel  the 


208        BLOCKING  NEW  WARS 

rest  of  the  world  to  unite  in  a  business 
opposition  to  Germany  as  an  act  of  self- 
preservation. 

THE  PRACTICAL  POSSIBILITIES  OF  GETTING 

SUCH  A  STATEMENT  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF 

GERMAN  BUSINESS  MEN 

The  difficulty  of  getting  such  a  report 
into  the  hands  of  German  business  men  is 
real  but  not  insuperable.  The  following 
possibilities  are  clear: 

1.  In  spite  of  rigid  censorship,  a  great  deal 
of  news  is  getting  into  Germany  from  the 
nearby  neutral  press.  The  papers  of  Switzer- 
land, Holland,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  other 
neutral  countries  are  getting  into  Germany 
constantly.  With  this  resolution  published 
in  Switzerland  alone,  we  could  be  practically 
sure  of  its  getting  into  the  hands  of  German 
business  men. 

2.  There  are  throughout  the  neutral  coun- 
tries business  men,  members  of  the  Inter- 
national Congress  of  Chambers  of  Com- 
merce and  otherwise,  who,  if  this  resolution 
were  placed  in  their  hands,  would  have  many 
opp>ortunities  to  discuss  the  matter  with  in- 
dividual business  men  of  Germany  upon  their 
frequent  visits  to  these  neutraJ  countries. 


BLOCKING  NEW  WARS        £09 

German  business  men  are  visiting  Switzerland, 
Holland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  other  neu- 
tral countries  constantly.  This  word-of- 
mouth  communication  of  the  report  would 
spread  the  idea  widely.  Our  personal  corre- 
spondence with  these  neutral  business  men 
would  help  greatly. 

The  business  men  of  the  United  States 
are  effectively  organising  their  collective 
forces  behind  the  army,  but  have  not 
yet  made  their  after-the-war  ideas  clear 
to  the  German  business  interests.  A  clear 
statement  of  what  the  attitude  of  the 
business  men  of  the  United  States  to- 
ward Germany  must  be  until  the  govern- 
ment becomes  responsible  to  its  people, 
will  add  yet  another  argument  in  the 
case  for  a  democratised  Germany.  We 
believe  with  President  Wilson  that  **the 
world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy, '  * 
and  we  feel  that  in  the  future  om*  busi- 
ness men  cannot  safely  tolerate  free  com- 
mercial intercourse  with  people  who 
choose  to  maintain  a  military  autocracy. 
December  20,  1917. 


THE  COUNTRY  LIFE  PRESS 
GARDEN  CITY,  N.  Y. 


STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED   FOR  FAILURE  TO   RETURN 
THIS   BOOK   ON   THE   DATE   DUE.   THE   PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY     AND     TO     $1.00     ON     THE    SEVENTH     DAY 
OVERDUE. 

:^iOV  18  1935 

liyiAV    ^  l^'i^ 

r\r^f     C%  A     ^C\*iCk 

OCT  24  jy^y 

^ 

LD  21-100m-7,'33 

amm  i 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


